The Congress high command has decided to defer the leadership issue in Meghalaya's faction-ridden ruling party, as two contenders for the chief ministerial post - incumbent J D Rymbai and his predecessor D D lapang -return on Wednesday.

AICC secretary in-charge of Meghalaya, Ved Prakash, told PTI from Delhi that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was busy with assembly election matters in the poll-bound states and therefore would decide the issue only in the first week of February.

He said Gandhi was also pre-occupied with an international conference on satyagraha and was involved in preparing the election manifesto and choosing party candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.

According to Prakash, Gandhi had seen the envelope, containing the secret ballot vote given by all the 29 Congress legislators of Meghalaya on January 17 to choose between Rymbai and Lapang as the chief minister.

"She has all the inputs available with her and will give a final decision soon," Prakash said.

Meanwhile, Rymbai and Lapang who were summoned by the Congress High Command were returning to Shillong on Wednesday.

Prakash refused to comment when asked if both the leaders would be called again to Delhi in the first week of February.

As per the high command directive, Prakash flew down to Shillong on January 17 to conduct an unprecedented secret ballot vote by 28 Congress MLAs (another sent a postal ballot) and returned back with a sealed envelope to hand over to Gandhi.