Core Committee meets again, fails to decide on T

With the party leaders from Telangana keeping up their pressure on the Congress to arrive at a decision on separate statehood demand, the Congress Core Committee continued to hold discussions on the contentious issue for the second consecutive day on Saturday.

However, sources say that the Core Committee failed to arrive at a decision today too.

The top echelons of the party are wracking their brains, trying to find a way out of the issue in the backdrop of threats of mass resignation by the party’s MPs, MLAs and Ministers from Telangana.

On Saturday, the members of the Core Committee first met at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for about 90 minutes and then met again at All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi’s residence to discuss the issue.

Today’s meeting followed a series of earlier meetings between the Core Committee members and party leaders from Telangana, who are pushing for a quick decision on the issue.

The Telangana Congress leaders are themselves cornered by the various separate statehood protagonists who are increasingly accusing them of resorting to delaying tactics.

Elected representatives from the region had met the Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Ms Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel.

Sources say that both Mr Mukherjee and Mr Chidambaram explained the need for urgency to arrive at a decision to the Congress president and the Prime Minister and also enlightened them of the stand of the Congress leaders from Telangana as well as from Seemandhra regions.

Caught between the two groups and disparate views, the High Command is looking for a way out of the tangle.