By IANS,
Hyderabad : The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Wednesday rejected its president K. Chandrasekhara Rao’s resignation after the setback in the by-elections last week and urged him to continue leading the movement for separate statehood to Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh.
An emergency meeting of the party unanimously passed a resolution appealing to him to take back his resignation. However, confusion continued in the party ranks as Rao stayed away from the meeting.
A delegation of senior leaders later left for Rao’s residence to convey to him the feelings expressed at the meet.
KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, resigned Tuesday, owning moral responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat in the by-elections last week.
TRS, which is fighting for carving out a separate state of Telangana, could retain only two of the four Lok Sabha seats and seven of 16 assembly seats in Thursday’s by-elections, results of which were announced Sunday.
Shocked by the defeat in two Lok Sabha and nine assembly seats, KCR Sunday decided to quit as party president and Tuesday sent his resignation to party general secretary Madhusudhana Chary.
The executive meeting, presided over by legislator V. Laxmikantha Rao, felt that KCR was not responsible for the party’s defeat.
TRS ideologue and former Kakatiya University vice chancellor Jayashankar said there was no alternative to KCR’s leadership and he should continue leading the movement at this “decisive stage”.
He advised KCR not to feel disheartened by the defeat as such setbacks were common for any movement. “We may have lost the battle but we will win the war. The final victory will be ours,” he said and advised party leaders and cadres to remain united and re-dedicate themselves to the movement.
“It is not that we can’t recover from this psychological setback. In fact it is good as it serves as a warning to us to introspect and prepare ourselves for future challenges,” he said.
Jayashankar claimed TRS was now stronger than it was in the 2004 elections. “KCR brought the Telangana issue to the centre stage and took it to the national agenda in four years. It is no mean achievement,” he said.
He said the state’s ruling Congress should not gloat over the results of the by-elections as the Telangana movement has been institutionalized. “The struggle never stopped since 1952 and it will never stop till we achieve our goal,” he said.