HYDERABAD: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said there are nearly 300 Lok Sabha constituencies in the country where candidates of regional parties are going to be major contenders. “In 130-140 seats, national parties will be dominant. In the remaining 300 odd seats, regional parties will play an important role. Thus, I am of the opinion that the tally of regional parties will be very high,” said the Hyderabad MP.
Dismissing claims that TRS and YSRCP would ally with BJP after elections, he said, “I am sure that whether it is K Chandrasekhar Rao or YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, they will definitely not go with BJP. For Jagan, what is important is the special category status for AP. For KCR, the key point is federalism. He has maintained for a while that there are too many State subjects in the Concurrent list.”
Owaisi also slammed PM Narendra Modi for his statement that 40 Trinamool Congress MLAs were in touch with him.
“If a PM goes to West Bengal, and says that after elections, 40 of your (TMC) MLAs will cross over to BJP, what is the message he is sending to all regional parties? That ‘I’ll break your party?” he asked.
He said Modi and his government had destroyed or weakened all democratic institutions in the country. “This country will not allow such horse-trading,” he said.