The crucial all-party meeting on the contentious Telangana issue is likely be held in the first week of February.
According to sources, the meeting, which was tentatively scheduled on January 24th or 25th, has been postponed after the centre could not arrive at a firm decision on the stance to be adopted, particularly in the light of the opposition to separate Telangana by Seemandhra MPs.
The Seemandhra MPs had on Thursday met Union Finance Minister and Congress Core Committee member Pranab Mukherjee, and raised objections to the 5th option given in the Srikrishna Committee Report.
The Congress leaders from Telangana are pushing for the 5th option to be adopted, and a separate state be declared.
The 5th option calls for the bifurcation of the state into Telangana and Seemandhra states as per existing boundaries, with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra having a new capital.
The Srikrishna Panel had said that this option was the second-most preferred option, and should be given consideration.
The centre had called the all-party meeting to arrive at a consensus before the budget session of the Parliament so that it could concentrate on governance rather than facing the Parliament being stalled.