Raising the stakes ahead of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao said on Monday that he would resign if the TRS fails to win the mayor's post in the upcoming elections.

KTR, as the minister is more commonly known as, was speaking at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme at Hyderabad's Press Club, organized by the Telangana Union of Working Journalists.

He claimed that the TRS would win 100 out of the 150 seats on its own while the MIM would come second, the BJP-TD third and Congress last with seats in single digits. He emphasised that there would be no alliance with the MIM, Deccan Chronicle reported.

Challenging the Opposition, particularly TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy, to accept his challenge, KTR also spoke on how the election results would be a referendum on the performance of the 18-month-old TRS government.

The minister also said that the government was trying to break its 'Hyderabad is only for Telanganaites' image.

Speaking to TOI, KTR said:

There was a misinformation campaign against the TRS that it will usher in xenophobic rule if Telangana is formed and we come to power. Our 18-months in power proved that malicious campaign wrong.We are reaching out to all sections of the society with the message that they belong to Telangana and the government treats everyone as equal and without discrimination.