Congress core committee may take a decision on Telangana

New Delhi/Hyderabad, July 12: Congress core committee is holding a meeting in New Delhi Friday, amid indications that it may take a decision on Telangana issue.

The meeting is scheduled to be held at 5.30 p.m. but the leadership has asked the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, deputy chief minister and state congress chief to be available at 4 p.m.

The three state leaders are likely to make their presentations separately before the core committee, which will then discuss the issue.

The core committee meeting to be held at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence will be attended by party chief Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel, Sushilkumar Shinde, Digvijaya Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad, party sources said.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh's statement that the party can't further delay a decision on the contentious issue has raised expectations of the core committee finally taking a call on future of Andhra Pradesh.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, his deputy Damodar Rajanarasimha and state Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana are camping in Delhi since Thursday to submit their roadmap to the leadership. The party leadership has asked them to submit the roadmap if a decision is taken either way.

The party leaders remained sharply divided along regional lines over the issue. Vehemently opposing any move to divide the state, a section of leaders from Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and Andhra regions) are lobbying in the national capital.

Party MPs, state ministers and other leaders from Telangana have also rushed to Delhi to present their case before the leadership. The MPs Friday morning held a meeting at the residence of Ponnam Prabhakar.

While Telangana leaders are hopeful that the core committee would take a positive decision and reiterate its commitment to a Dec 9, 2009 statement, their counterparts from Seemandhra believe that the state would remain united.

Then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Dec 9, 2009 had announced that the process for formation of separate Telangana state would be initiated. However, following mass resignations by MPs and state legislators from Seemandhra, the centre put the process on hold, citing need for a consensus.