CONGRESS WORKING COMMITTEE TO MEET ON TELANGANA ISSUE

CONGRESS WORKING COMMITTEE TO MEET ON TELANGANA ISSUE

Veering towards conceding the demand for a separate Telangana, the Congress has convened a meeting of its working committee, the party's highest policy making body, tomorrow after deliberations on the issue in the UPA Coordination Committee.Highly placed Congress sources said the coordination committee will meet at 1600 hrs followed by the meeting of the

CWC at 1730 hrs.The high-level meetings are being called on the eve of the conclusion of the Panchayat polls in Andhra Pradesh.These meetings come a time when the Congress high command is said to be inclined towards bifurcating Andhra Pradeshnotwithstanding the opposition from within the party and its state leadership.

While the UPA meeting is an attempt to secure a stamp of approval of the constituents of the ruling alliance, theCongress Working Committee meeting is to take a final call after it gets the sense about the stand of the allies on theissue.While NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has already made a strong pitch for the formation of separate Telangana, another ally RLD leader and Civil Aviation Minister is a votary of smaller states and has been advocating for long the creation of Harit Pradesh out of districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, his home turf.

Prof. John Kurakar