New Delhi, July 12
Suspense over the future of Telangana continued on Friday, with the Congress Core Group headed by party president Sonia Gandhi referring the matter to the working committee, the party’s highest decision-making body.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in attendance, the Core Group -- comprising Defence Minister AK Antony and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde -- debated the issue of statehood to Telangana for over two hours, but could not arrive at a decision firm enough to be announced, despite reports that a conclusion would be reached on the vexed issue.

Amid a heavy shower, Digvijay Singh, Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra affairs, stopped outside the PM’s Race Course Road residence - the venue for the meeting -- to tell reporters that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) would decide on the matter.

"The Congress Party has held the widest consultations with all political parties, leaders and even the Core Group. Now, the Congress shall call the CWC and will take a decision,” Digvijay said, giving indications that the Core Group had already reached an understanding on the solution and the CWC’s endorsement would be taken.

With the decision being taken to refer the matter to the CWC, talk of the possibility of the Telangana matter being referred to the second State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) resurfaced. Some party sources said Andhra Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today suggested this possibility in his presentation before the Core Group.

In 2001, the Congress Working Committee had passed a resolution asking the BJP-led NDA Government to constitute a second SRC to look into the demand for Telangana state at a time when several other regions were also demanding statehood.

About today’s developments, it was reliably learnt that the first to make a presentation before the Core Group was Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana, who is not known to be a votary for Telangana.

After Botsa’s 15-minute presentation, Andhra Deputy CM Damodar Rajanarasimha, who hails from the Telangana region, spoke for 20 minutes in favour of the creation of a separate state.

The last to speak was Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who gave an hour-long detailed presentation, reportedly in favour of a united Andhra Pradesh.