NEW DELHI: Congress's top brass went into a huddle on the Telangana statehood demand on Monday, but failed to arrive at any decision.

There was no official word on what transpired at the meeting that was attended by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the party's general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh. Azad's presence at the meeting, which lasted for 90 minutes, was significant since the contentious issue of a separate Telangana is back to haunt the ruling party in the wake of recent agitations.

Congress plans to hold a meeting of UPA allies before the Winter session of Parliament begins on November 22, where consultations will be held on various issues, including Telangana.

The meeting of Congress Core Group, attended by party chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, came close on the heels of J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah meeting the PM and home minister P Chidambaram. Omar had met defence minister A K Antony on Sunday.

On AFSPA, the Army had voiced concern over the move to withdraw it from certain parts of J&K citing security reasons even as Omar has been insisting on it.