The Congress today raised doubts over LK Advani's claim based on a book that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had called his Home Minister Sardar Patel a "total communalist" when the latter suggested that army be sent to take over a defiant Hyderabad after Independence.

Advani had referred to extracts of a book - "The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will" by M K K Nair, an IAS officer of 1947 batch who served in the Union of India and was believed to be close to Sardar Patel.

The book refers to "sharp exchanges" between Nehru and Patel in a Cabinet meeting before "police action" against Hyderabad.