TRS chief Chandrasekhara Rao quits

The crisis in the Telangana Rashtra Samiti took a new turn on Friday with party president K Chandrasekhara Rao announcing his resignation from the party leadership.

The announcement came after several senior party leaders revolted against him, holding him responsible for the debacle of the party in the recent elections. Also, a group of rebel TRS leaders launched a new non-political organisation -- Telangana Vimocana Samiti -- to continue the struggle.

"I am pained over the way my family has been targeted in the recent days," KCR said, referring to rebels' allegations that Rao turned the party into a family concern by giving tickets to his son and nephew.

He also alleged that some anti-Telangana forces had conspired to damage and weaken the TRS.  

The beleaguered leader stated that he would like to continue as an ordinary party worker and continue to work for the cause of separate Telangana state.

Party general secretary Madhusudhana Chary said Rao had sent in his resignation but it was yet to be accepted by the party's executive committee.

Only last week, party executive had expressed its confidence in Rao's leadership and suspended five prominent dissidents.

The dissident leader K Dilip Kumar, who described KCR's decision to resign as "good", demanded that a dalit leader should be made the next president of TRS.

"Chandrasekhara Rao had promised that a dalit will be the first Chief Minister of Telangana state. Now he can make a dalit at least the president of TRS," he said.

Dilip Kumar, who has now launched Telangana Vimochana Samiti, said that if a new president takes over, his organisation will extend full cooperation to the TRS to achieve Telangana state.

"We have been forced to launch TVS because of the wrong policies of KCR. Otherwise we don't have any quarrel with the TRS," said Dilip Kumar.

But the supporters of KCR on the other hand are opposing his resignation. Party's former legislator Satyanarayana demanded Rao to withdraw the resignation and said that if Telangana movement had come this far, it was because of his leadership.

Earlier on June 3, 2008, KCR had resigned as the party president accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the by elections following the enmass resignation of the TRS MPs and MLAs.

Rao, who after quitting the Telugu Desam Party had launched TRS and movement for Telangana state has resigned many times from different positions.

He resigned twice as the member of Parliament and won in by elections from Karimnagar. This time he however moved to the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency which he won by a margin of 19,000 votes.

In 2009 elections he and the film actress Vijayshanti were the only two TRS candidates to be elected to the Lok Sabha.

But the growing importance of the actress turned politician Vijayshanti in the party also triggered protests from with in the organisation.