Kolkata (PTI): CPI(M) on Tuesday ruled out the West Bengal government entertaining the separate statehood demand for 'Gorkhkaland' revived by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha in Darjeeling.

"The demand for a separate state is absurd and unacceptable. The state government cannot entertain such a demand. A state within a state is not possible," state secretary of the CPI(M) Biman Bose, who is also the ruling Left Front chairman, told reporters here.

He accused the GJM, which is enforcing an indefinite bandh in the hills, of trying to disturb the unity of the people living in the plains and the hill areas of the Darjeeling district.

Manoj Bhattacherjee, a central committee member of LF constituent RSP, however, blamed the state government's inordinate delay to solve the problem.

Ashok Ghosh, state secretary of Forward Bloc, another Left Front constituent described the situation in Darjeeling as alarming and said that the state government should immediately ask the Centre to hold talks with the agitators to arrive at a solution.

"But under no circumstances can the demand for a separate state be accepted," he said.