The statement, in which the chief minister announced the constitution of a committee of the legislative assembly and legislative council members to go into the Telangana issue, came at the fag end of the last session of the present assembly.

The members of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Telugu Desam and the Left parties rushed to the well of the House and surrounded the podium of the Speaker demanding a clear cut resolution seeking the formation of Telangana state.

The TDP members including former ministers Kadiam Srihari and T Srinivas Yadav and T Harish Rao of the TRS shouted slogans "We want resolution", tore apart the copies of the CM's statement and threw them in the House.

That the Chief Minister going to make an "important statement" was the subject of intense speculations since morning inside the House and the lobbies.

Many believed that he was going to announce a judicial inquiry into the allegations of the irregularities by the companies of his son Jaganmohan Reddy as well as Heritage Foods belonging to the leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu's [Images] family, some hoped that it will be a resolution on Telangana.

But both the groups were disappointed as the CM made another clever move to silence his detractors on Telangana issue by announcing a committee.

"The government of Andhra Pradesh has no objection to the formation of Telangana state in principles and feels that the time has come to move forward decisively on this issue. However before taking a decision many of the issues need to be resolved as serious concerns have been raised by the stake holders", the chief minister said reading from prepared text amid interruptions from the opposition.

"The demand for the formation of a separate Telangana state is a highly emotive issue and is one which is close to my heart and the Congress party," he said adding that the Congress always respected the sentiment of the Telangana people and its stand on demand for Telangana state was clear from the beginning.

"Another major question was whether to divide the state in to two, or three or four parts because the people of north Andhra were demanding their own state and Rayalaseema people were seeking their own state," he said.

The CM's statement evoked a strong reaction from the opposition. Chandrababu Naidu said that the statement was aimed at skirting the main issues and hoodwink the people.

T Harish Rao of TRS said that it was clearly a move to mislead and cheat the people of Telangana.

Kishan Reddy of the BJP, N Narasimhaiah of CPI-M and Ch Venkat Reddy of CPI also took strong objection to the statement.

Even as the opposition members were protesting in the House, the Speaker K R Suresh Reddy announced that he was adjourning the session sine die.