The congress core committee, which discussed the Telangana issue Friday evening, decided to consult the UPA Government partners before asking the Centre to act on the issue.

The meeting, held at the residence of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in Delhi, was also attended by the party president Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defense Minister AK Antony and Home Minister P. Chidambaram besides Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Health Minister and the Congress affairs in-charge of AP.

Officially, it is not known what transpired in the meeting but sources said the members decided to hold consultations with the other parties of the UPA Government on the contentious Telangana issue first and other political parties next before arriving at a final conclusion.

The congress leadership may take time till January 2012 to complete the whole process of consultations with the UPA partners and the national political parties before announcing its decision on the demand for carving out the separate state of Telangana.