Hyderabad, June 18 (IANS) The MPs of the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh Saturday stood vertically divided over Telangana issue with Ponnam Prabhakar announcing his resignation as the convenor of state MPs' forum.

 
 The MP from Karimnagar in Telangana quit hours after his counterpart from Vijayawada in Andhra region L. Rajagopal threw a challenge at him.
 
 Prabhakar demanded that the party leadership set up separate MPs forums and separate party units for Andhra and Telangana regions.
 
 Earlier, Rajagopal, who is strongly opposed to bifurcation of the state, criticised Prabhakar for lobbying for a separate Telangana state while continuing as convenor of Andhra Pradesh MPs' forum.
 
 Rajagopal, who is also an industrialist, pointed out that Hyderabad is the capital of 22 districts and hence cannot be made capital of one particular region.
 
 "Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and Andhra regions) don't require Rs.25,000 crore package as they have invested Rs.25 lakh crore in Hyderabad," claimed Rajagopal while referring to the suggestion by Telangana MPs that the central government announce a special package for Seemandhra while granting separate statehood to Telangana.
 
 The Vijayawada MP said if separate Telangana state is formed, Hyderabad will plunge into communal riots. He pointed out that the  Srikrishna Committee has also voiced this apprehension in its report.