TRS will win 16 Lok Sabha seats: KTR

Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi will begin preparatory meetings for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from March 1. The party will release schedule for the constituency-wise meetings on Sunday. In an informal chit chat with the media at TRS Legislature Party office on Saturday, TRS working president K T Rama Rao said the party would release schedule for the constituency-wise preparatory meetings on Sunday. 

Important TRS leaders, including MLAs elected from the Assembly segments which constitute each Lok Sabha constituency, would attend the meetings. KTR is confident that the TRS would win 16 Lok Sabha seats. “We will go with a slogan of ‘Telangana prajalu Delhi ni shasinchali’ (Telangana people should be able to call shots in Delhi) in the Lok Sabha elections. We achieved Telangana with just two MPs and if we can win 16 seats, we will definitely play a crucial role,” said KTR.
 
He said both the Congress and BJP were in a confused state in the country. The  Congress cannot cross 100 and BJP would not cross 150 seats. In this scenario, regional parties would play a crucial role. On the question of surveys showing Narendra Modi as number one choice for the post of Prime Minister, KTR said this was because the Modi was the Prime Minister and it was natural to get support. He said it is the parliamentary system of government and not the presidential system of government, he said.

He predicted AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu would definitely lose the election and YSR Congress would win. “Chandrababu is in a frustration as he has failed on every aspect. He has not fulfilled his promises and 100 per cent he would lose the election. Forget about playing crucial role in Delhi, he cannot play a role even in Vijayawada,” said KTR. He questioned as to why Naidu should have objection on the IT raids on industrialist leaders. 

He recalled that there were raids even on TRS MP. He asked whether the leaders were his benami. When asked about Chief Minister skipping West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s dharna, KTR said the issue was a conflict between two institutions and also added that Naidu has more free time on his hand whereas TRS chief has lot of work.Replying to a question on BJP taking advantage on Pulwama terror attack, he said that if the BJP tried to take advantage of the attack, it would boomerang on it. 

People were wise to take a decision, he added. The TRS leader said his party would win all the five MLC seats. The party has high number of second preferential votes. On his exclusion from the Cabinet, he said that it is the Chief Minister’s prerogative to select the Ministers and he along with Harish Rao had no complaints.