The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana may submit its report on Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation to the Union Cabinet on Thursday. 

The GoM, whose main task is to look into the state’s division, has already finalised the report as well as the draft Bill on Telangana. 

While the Union Cabinet does have a scheduled meeting today, the GoM was not forthcoming on whether it will present the draft Bill today. 

Bill but remained non-committal on when it will be submitted to the Union Cabinet. 

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who heads the GoM, yesterday said: "Some discussions are still left. I cannot say when the GoM will submit the report to Cabinet." 

Shinde made the remarks after chairing a four-hour long meeting of the GoM wherein various issues concerning the bifurcation and distribution of assets between the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were discussed. 

The GoM has already met leaders of eight political parties, Union ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and state officials over the last month and sought their opinion on distribution of assets and other issues between the new state and the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. 

The Home Minister has remarked earlier that the Telangana Bill would be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament. 

Once the Cabinet puts its stamp of approval on the Bill, the proposal will be forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee who in turn will refer it to Andhra Pradesh Assembly for approval. However, the Assembly resolution is not binding under the Constitution. 

The Union Cabinet then can consider the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill and with Union Cabinet's approval, it will send it to the President before being tabled in Parliament. 

The Winter Session of Parliament commences on December 5 and will conclude on December 20. 

NEW DELHI: The Centre is set to give a final push to the formation of Telangana after the end of the monsoon session of Parliament on Friday, with Union Cabinet's decision to divide Andhra Pradesh opening the door for a flurry of action on the fraught issue. 

Sources said the Cabinet will attest the Congress decision by formally deciding on a proposal from the home ministry for creation of the new state. It will be accompanied by the constitution of a group of ministers, likely to be headed by defence minister A K Antony, to draft the legislation for statehood. 

Also, the Cabinet will forward a resolution to the Andhra Pradesh assembly seeking its nod. The assembly assent is not mandatory and Congress is firm on going ahead with statehood irrespective of how the bitterly divided state House reacts to the resolution. 

Sources said the process will not be protracted like the formation of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in 2000, and may be clinched before the year-end. An optimistic senior leader said, "There will be two chief ministers by November-end." 

The Congress Working Committee's decision last month triggered a wave of protests in Coastal Andhra, largely because Hyderabad would be in Telangana and would be a shared capital till Andhra finds an alternative. But the ruling camp is undeterred by the hostility and is no mood to do a volte face like December 2009. 

The move for Telangana is dictated by concerns over the party's prospects in 2014, given the challenges of Jaganmohan Reddy's rebellion, statehood and anti-incumbency. 

Congress hopes statehood will give it an upper hand in Telangana that accounts for 17 Lok Sabha seats and could go up to 21 seats if two districts of Rayalaseema are included in it. 

The gambit to cut its losses by winning over Telangana appears to make sense given the dire straits the party otherwise would be in united Andhra. 

The bid to clinch statehood before the year-end would test the ruling camp. A strong section of non-Telangana bloc has aired concern that migrants would be vulnerable in Hyderabad which accounts for the maximum settler population and would fall in Telangana. 

Sources said the Centre is likely to create a mechanism by which law and order in Hyderabad would be under the jurisdiction of the Centre till the capital is shared. 

The challenge before the ministerial panel headed by Antony would be the division of water and power assets, intractable issues between states nationally. But sources said it was unlikely to take much time. "There is a formula that is followed by all states," a leader said. 

Congress believes it would manage to quell the challenge from Telangana Rashtra Samithi if the latter does not tie up and is focussed on how the post-T situation evolves in Coastal region where YSR Congress has come out strongly against division after initial indications that it would stay neutral. 

While even Congress MPs and ministers from Coastal region are opposed to statehood, they are mostly concerned about the handing of Hyderabad to the new state. Sources said a handsome relief package to Andhra state for creation of capital would help douse the anger among people.