Decision on Telangana before Monsoon session?

A decision on the vexed issue of Telangana is expected before Monsoon session of Parliament which is likely to start after August 15. An indication to this effect was available in New Delhi on Saturday with a senior Congress leader noting that a decision will take time and would involve two to three more meetings of the party top brass.

The statement of the leader, who declined to be identified, came a day after a meeting of the Congress core group deliberated deeply and deferred decision on the statehood issue to the Congress Working Committee.

The talk in party circles was that the leadership was considering only the issue of a separate Telangana or maintaining a united Andhra Pradesh and there was no third option like creation of any autonomous council.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had a meeting with All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for the state, Digvijaya Singh.

A two-hour-long meeting of the Congress core group headed by party Chief Sonia Gandhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi by her side had deliberated deeply on the matter on Friday.

Reddy, PCC Chief Botsa Satyanarayana and Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha had given a presentation on the issue of Telangana to the core group.

Talking to PTI on Thursday, Digvijay Singh had maintained that a decision cannot be postponed "anymore". After the Core group meeting on Friday, Singh had merely said that the CWC will take a decision. He did not specify when the meeting of the apex policy making body of the party is being called.