Owaisi bets on TRS returning to power in Telangana

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is betting on the TRS to return to power in Telangana and hinted at backing the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party in segments where it is not fielding candidates.

The AIMIM has already come out with its first list of seven candidates, all sitting MLAs, for the coming Assembly elections.

The caretaker Chief Minister and the TRS supremo, popularly known as KCR, had also announced party candidates in 105 of the total 119 constituencies in the State.

KCR has described AIMIM as a "friendly party" and said TRS would have "friendly contests" in segments where Owaisi-led party fields candidates.

AIMIM contested in 20 segments in the 2014 Assembly elections, winning seven of them, all in Old City, its bastion over the years.

Speaking to PTI Thursday, Owaisi, who is also Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, said a decision on how many more seats his party would contest is yet to be taken.

On his assessment of the TRS government's performance, he said: "I feel that TRS has a very good chance of coming back (to power) and I see KCR becoming the Chief Minister again."
Asked if AIMIM would support TRS wherever it does not field candidates, Owaisi said "Where we are not contesting, people themselves will decide, we need not tell them because in the last four years, there have been no incidents of communal riots in Telangana."
To a question on whether the AIMIM was interested in joining the TRS government if it returned to power, he said "not at all."