Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and former union minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday announced his resignation from the Lok Sabha.
Rao said that accepting the challenge of senior Congress minister M Satyanarayana Rao and Andhra Pradesh Congress committee chief K Keshav Rao, he had decided to quit.
He added that he was sending his resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee immediately.
He said he was ready to make any sacrifice for the cause of a separate Telangana state. Stating that all the other TRS MPs as well as MLAs were ready to quit their seats, he challenged the Congress MPs and MLAs from the region to resign their membership.
He declared that he would devote full time to the struggle for separate Telangana state.
He said that he and his colleague A Narendra had earlier quit the Union Cabinet on August 22 after the Congress-led UPA government failed to give a firm commitment on a timetable for creation of separate Telangana state.
The Congress had 'betrayed' the people of this backward region by going back on its assurance, he said.
Satyanarayana Rao had offered to quit his ministerial post and Assembly membership to contest against Chandrasekhar Rao in the by-poll.
APCC president Keshav Rao had also taunted the TRS president and asked him to quit Lok Sabha and seek re-election. "I am ready to request the Election Commission of India to hold the by-election to this seat within a month," Keshav Rao had said.
Chandrasekhar Rao was elected to the Lok Sabha from Karimnagar constituency in 2004 elections.
Satyanarayana Rao was elected to the State Legislative Assembly from Karimnagar segment. The Congress and the TRS had electoral alliance for the 2004 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.