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Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) yesterday 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.
KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, resigned on Tuesday, owning moral responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in the by-elections.
TRS could retain only two of the four Lok Sabha seats and seven of 16 assembly seats in last Thursday's by-elections, results of which were announced on Sunday.
Shocked by the defeat, KCR sent his resignation on Tuesday 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 Professor 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 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.
"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.
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