A delegation of the Telangana Congress leaders, who resigned from their elected posts in the first week of this month, has reached New Delhi on Monday for talks with party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad. The 12-member team, constituted by the steering committee, will meet Azad at 7 p.m. today.

The talks assume significance in view of the Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker rejecting resignations of 101 legislators from Telangana. Committee chairmen K. Keshava Rao and K. Jana Reddy, MPs Madhu Goud Yaskhi, G. Sukhender Reddy, Manda Jaggannatham, Rajaiah, K. Rajagopal Reddy and Vivek and state minister Geeta Reddy are among the leaders who will participate in the talks.

AICC General Secretary Gulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, has invited the leaders to make their proposal to resolve the issue. He already had preliminary talks with them last Friday in which the Congress MPs and legislators have already made it clear that they would not accept any alternative to a separate Telangana state, and demanded the leadership to initiate the process for the same. While Tealangana leaders are looking for an assurance during the crucial meet, Azad on his part has already stated that a decision on Telangana would be taken only after talks with the leaders of all regions of Andhra Pradesh. He hinted that the consultation process may take two months.

The steering committee is likely to take a decision on the issue after talks with Azad. At the two meetings held at Hyderabad on Sunday to chalk out future course of action, differences cropped up among Congress leaders. While one section felt they should immediately submit their resignations again, other said they should wait for two months as the leadership is holding talks on the issue. Some leaders also suggested that they should submit their resignations to Azad instead of the assembly speaker to give a clear message that while they are committed to a separate state, they don't want to defy the leadership.