Rahul likely to attend Cong Core Group meeting today

New Delhi, July 12: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is expected to attend the party's core group meeting on Friday, July 12 when the forum could take a concrete view on the vexed issue of Telangana statehood.

This will be the first meeting of the key decision-making body of the party which Gandhi will attend after being elevated as Congress Vice President in Jaipur in January this year.

The Congress core group is an interface between the party and the government and is chaired by Sonia Gandhi, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidamabaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and the Congress President's political secretary Ahmed Patel are its members.

The group usually meets every Friday at the Prime Minister's official residence and formulates the party's opinion on key issues confronting the government.

Soon after Rahul Gandhi was elevated as Vice President, there was intense speculation about the likelihood of his being made a member of the Core Group.

It is not clear whether Rahul Gandhi will be attending future meetings of the Core Group as well. Gandhi also heads a special group set up by the party for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

PTI