Extending support to the Telangana movement, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief and Union Minister Ajit Singh today launched his party's unit in Hyderabad and promised to raise the issue in Parliament.

Singh, who announced the formation of his party's Telangana unit, told reporters that he was also trying to form a 'Friends of Telangana' group for enabling all parties supporting the movement to come together. "The purpose of my coming here today is I want the RLD to be associated with this movement. In fact, the party had 27 of its MLAs from this region of Andhra Pradesh and also ministers once upon a time," he said. The struggle for separate Telangana had been going on for long and that he himself was associated with the movement earlier, Singh said, adding that some or the other hurdles were coming in the way of its formation.

It was a misfortune that despite so much support from the people and getting a promise from the Centre also...people here feel cheated (on Telangana issue) and hence the struggle for separate state continues, he said.

Replying to a query, Singh said he had spoken to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the Telangana issue and would continue to hold talks on the matter. It is finally up to the Central government to decide on granting statehood to the region and the Parliament has to pass a resolution in this regard, the Union Civil Aviation Minister said.

Earlier, he said while addressing party workers that the RLD had always supported the creation of smaller states. It is not a new thing, we have been in favour of smaller states and participated in separate state movements for Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. Now, we are creating a movement for (separate) Vidharbha.

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- PTI