Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday stuck to his date with political parties to discuss carving out Telangana but refused to commit himself on the possible outcome of the all party meeting. Health minister and Congress in-charge of Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad had last week linked the all-party meeting to the change in guard at the home ministry earlier this year."Since Sushilkumar Shinde recently took over, he has called the meeting to know the views afresh," Azad said.

Shinde had announced the all party meeting for December 28, apparently to ensure Congress MPs from the Telangana region did not skip the voting on FDI in Parliament. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy promptly asked him to defer the meeting since it clashed with the World Telugu Conference on 27-29 December.

The home minister said he hadn't taken this demand very seriously since he was yet to formally invite the political parties to the all party meeting. "My meeting is on December 28... It will discuss Telangana issue," he emphasised.

The minister, however, did not commit himself to an early decision. "The process of discussion will continue till the final result comes," he said. Many Telangana MPs had earlier projected the December 28 meeting as one that would take them a step closer to carving out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.