New Delhi, Jan 8 (ANI): Congress President Sonia Gandhi will on Friday chair the meeting of the Congress Core Committee where wide-ranging consultations will be held on the Telangana statehood issue.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel are also expected to attend the meeting.

Earlier on Thursday, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who is leading the Telangana cause met Antony and discussed the issue.

The Congress Core Committee will on Friday take into account all the earlier discussions held on the issue including the meeting that was convened by Chidambaram on Tuesday, where he had a meeting with the leaders of eight Andhra Pradesh political parties and discussed the issue.

Several separate meetings held over the last two days will also be taken note of in today’s discussion.Chidambaram is expected to brief the members all the recent discussions that were held on the issue.Earlier, the Central Government had promised formation of a panel that would meet to take forward the process of wide ranging consultations on the Telangana issue as promised by Chidambaram.

The committee is expected to take a final decision on the composition of the experts’ panel on Telangana. (ANI)