Hyderabad, June 1 (IANS) Shocked by the defeat in majority of the Lok Sabha and assembly by-elections, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao Sunday offered to quit.
Owning moral responsibility for the defeat in two out of four Lok Sabha and 10 of 16 assembly constituencies, Rao offered to resign as party president at a meeting of party leaders at his residence here.
Party sources said KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, told the leaders he would not like to continue on the post. However, the TRS leaders appealed to him to continue leading the party.
KCR, who retained Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat but with a narrow margin, was shocked by the results as he was expecting the party to win majority seats in the by-elections, branded as a referendum on a separate Telangana.
It was gloom at Telangana Bhavan, the TRS headquarters here, as the party leaders began analysis of the results in view of elections scheduled for next year.
TRS MPs and 16 state legislators had quit en masse in March to protest the delay in granting separate statehood to Telangana.
KCR has resigned from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2001 to launch TRS to revive the four-decade old movement for separate statehood to Telangana region, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad.
TRS had fought the 2004 elections in alliance with the Congress party and bagged five Lok Sabha and 26 assembly seats in the region.
TRS, which had joined the Congress-led coalition governments both in the state and at the centre, later pulled out to protest the delay in carving out a separate Telangana state.
While 10 state legislators of the party staged a revolt against KCR’s leadership two years ago, MP A. Narendra was expelled from the party last year over his alleged role in a human smuggling scandal.