The hastily convened all-party meeting by Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Monday evening concluded without arriving at any conclusion on the demand for a separate state of Telangana as the Congress refused to express its stand.
The chief minister told the participants of the meeting at the secretariat that he had wanted to elicit the opinions of all the parties which will be forwarded to the Congress high command.
However, when other parties asked bout the Congress' stand, he reiterated that the state Congress would abide by any decision taken by the high command.
In New Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Pranab Mukherjee held consultations with other senior colleagues including Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony on the Telangana debate on Friday.
Significantly, except for the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, all other opposition parties --including the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Rashtriay Samithi, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Praja Rajyam Party, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist have told the government that they would support the government in the assembly if it resolved in favor of Telangana state.
After the meeting, PRP leader Chiranjeevi said he had come to the meeting with a hope for a breakthrough, but was returning disappointed because the Congress did not clarify its stand.
The MIM, which has its strong base in Hyderabad, said it would announce its position after the Congress decided on its stand.
The leader of the House in the assembly J Geeta Reddy said the Congress would wait for the final decision of the party high command.
She said that meeting was called on the instruction of party president Sonia Gandhi to take the views of all the parties.
P Ashok Gajpati Raju of the TDP said there was no change in his party's stand.
"We have already made it clear that if the Congress moved a resolution in the assembly we will support it".
G Kishan Reddy of the BJP said if the Congress and the BJP joined hands in the Lok Sabha, it would be sufficient to pass the bill for formation of Telangana state. But he alleged that the Congress was not sincere about solving the problem.
Jaypraksh Narayan of Lok Satta, G Mallesh of the CPI and J Ranga Reddy of the CPM also criticised the Congress government for lack of sincerity.
