With winds blowing in favour of statehood for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is reportedly toying with the idea of tendering his resignation if the Congress Working Committee (CWC) takes a decision to bifurcate the state in its meeting scheduled on Tuesday evening.

Reddy, who left for Delhi on Tuesday morning, is understood to have already expressed his inability to oversee the process of a possible division of the state. As a leader from the Rayalaseema region, Reddy had tried valiantly to convince the Congress high command against bifurcation or trifurcation of the state.

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With all doors seemingly shut, leaders from the Seemandhra region are meanwhile making all efforts to restrain the party high command from making a formal announcement on statehood for Telangana on Tuesday itself. With time running out before the crucial Congress CWC meeting, groups of leaders from the two regions have been lobbying hard with top Congress leaders since Monday night.

As a desperate preemptive tactic, the leaders are now pleading with the party high command to consider a new proposal – they are appealing the party to first have a thorough debate on the Srikrishna commission report in parliament before announcing its decision.

The move is clearly aimed at buying time and thus delay the inevitable. The move comes in the wake of clear signals that the party high command, and AICC president Sonia Gandhi in particular, are in favour of a pro-Telangana decision.

A UPA coordination committee meeting and a subsequent CWC meeting are expected to take a final decision on the vexed Telangana issue in Delhi on Tuesday evening. It is speculated that the party might opt for announcing its in-principle decision, without getting too much into details, at the end of the meeting.