Soon after announcing that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) would field its candidates in nine constituencies for the Telangana Assembly elections, party president Asaduddin Owaisi spoke exclusively to The Hindu on a gamut of subjects. From his criticism of the Congress and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking a coalition government in the State, and of the need to adopt the “Telangana model” across India. Edited excerpts:
Q: AIMIM’s first list, comprising constituencies in Hyderabad, is out. Will we see another list of candidates that will reflect the party’s increase in footprint across Telangana given that you have a presence in local bodies?
A: We made it clear that we are going to field candidates in nine constituencies. As regards contesting 35 seats in the 2014 elections, that happened in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. The Election Commission had a rule that to get a common symbol, a certain number of seats should be contested. That rule has been changed now. One opinion suggested that if we have enough corporators, why don’t we contest Assembly elections? The other view was that local body elections, in comparison, are fought at a different level. The consensus that emerged was, let us focus on nine Assembly seats. Wherever we are not contesting, we will support the present Chief Minister.
