Cong MP asks Govt to rule out division of Andhra Pradesh

Party MP L Rajagopal made the request to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde contending that there was no consensus on the division of the state.

"I request you to kindly issue a statement keeping Andhra Pradesh united unequivocally and end the present impasse immediately," he told Shinde.

Besides, he claimed that the Telangana March taken out on Sept 30 by those advocating the cause of a separate state turned out to be a "very insignificant" affair as it had only a "small gathering" of 27,000 people.

Rajagopal said that people of Telangana have realised that emotions and sentiments of innocent people are being used through agitations by "unscrupulous" political parties and their leaders for their political and financial gains.

Rajagopal, however, evaded queries on the response he got from the Union Home Minister. He recalled that Shinde had recently said that there was no forward movement on the issue.

He insisted that since 2003, Congress had only spoken about setting up of a Second Reorgansiation Commission and not about creation of any separate state.