Hyderabad: Terming the scale of his party's defeat in the Assembly elections as "unexpected", Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is set to resign later in the afternoon, today (May 11, 2004) sounded unrepentant about the reforms his Government had initiated and promised to play a "positive and constructive role" in the Opposition.

"I worked hard to develop Andhra Pradesh as a model State. I have no regrets. I fully accept the people's mandate and will support good policies of the new (Congress) Government," Naidu said as poll results poured in.

Riding high on anti-incumbency and a string of populist promises, coupled with Telangana factor, the Congress-TRS combine secured majority bagging 154 seats in the 294-member Assembly and was leading in 64 others while TDP-BJP combine managed to win only 30 seats and was leading in 16 others.

As several senior Ministers were trounced in the Opposition wave, which was uniformly spread across the State, Naidu declined to go into the reasons for his party's rout saying, "It is too early to discuss them."

"We will review the party's performance and come back to you giving reasons for our defeat. We need to analyse whether people merely voted for change or any other reasons influenced their decision," he said.

Naidu is to meet Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala at Raj Bhavan later in the afternoon to submit his resignation.

The TDP, which went to polls on development and performance planks, had 180 seats in the dissolved Assembly while its ally BJP had 12 seats. The Congress had strength of 91 in the 294-member House.