NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday sought to ignore the remarks of Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi opposing creation of a separate Telangana state carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
"With due respect to Sai Baba we can say that the work for setting up the second state reorganisation commission will go on,"said party general secretary Digvijay Singh.
He said his party favoured creation of a separate Telangana state. Singh, who looks after Andhra affairs in the party, disagreed with a suggestion that chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy could have instigated the Sai Baba to make the statement.
Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, 81, found himself embroiled in a political row after his recent remarks characterising the partition of the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) as a "great sin". 

On a recent visit to Chennai he publicly spoke out against the proposed partition of India's fourth largest state, calling such a move a "mahapapam" (great sin) and claimed that there was no demand from the people to bifurcate AP into Telangana and Andhra states. 

The comments caused an outcry among pro-Telangana activists who angrily voiced their protests in street marches and attacks on the Sivam building, the Baba's temple in Hyderabad, which was staffed by a few devotees. Shouting anti-Sai Baba slogans, the protestors pulled down a large picture of the holy man and trampled on it before taking it outside and setting it on fire. An effigy of the Baba was also reported to have been burnt, and twenty protestors were arrested following several police complaints.