The ruling Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh today took serious exception to the comments of TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao against their party and the Nehru-Gandhi family.

"Chandrasekhar Rao says Congress is deceiving Telangana. He says Nehruji merged the region with Andhra, Indira Gandhi killed 369 (pro-Telangana) students and Sonia Gandhi is now harassing Telangana people. This is his language. Is this air, justified for him?," State Congress president B Satyanarayana told reporters here.

"We know how Andhra Pradesh was formed and how linguistic states came into existence," he said.

AICC Secretary and party MLC P Sudhakar Reddy said the TRS President's comments are an attempt to provoke Telangana people for his own political benefit.

Stressing statehood issue can only be resolved in an atmosphere of harmony, he said, provocative actions would only lead to unwanted problems.

Congress leaders were responding to Rao's comments made against the Congress at a protest organised here yesterday.

The pro-Telangana protests were held following the Centre's recent decision to hold further consultations to resolve the contentious issue.

Statehood supporters were angry over the alleged delay in formation of Telangana though Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had reportedly said in December a decision on the issue would be taken in a month's time.