New Delhi, March 17: The Centre will try to float afresh an autonomy formula at the talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Delhi tomorrow but it is also keeping its options open on a two-year time frame because of unpublicised reservations expressed by the Trinamul Congress.

At the tripartite talks involving the Centre, the Morcha and the Bengal government, a draft formula that almost achieved a breakthrough but got derailed because of the Telangana announcement is expected to be taken up again.

The Morcha had refused to allow the proposal to be tabled in December in Darjeeling.

The Centre is keen to float the proposal, based on the Delhi Administration Act, 1966, that offers greater autonomy and facilitates a virtual Union territory, again and try for a consensus.

But sources said Trinamul, which like other mainstream parties in Bengal has vehemently opposed the division of the state, wanted “a permanent solution” to fall into place only in mid-2011 when Assembly polls would be held.

The sources said the party had relayed as much to the home ministry. If Trinamul does exert more pressure, the Centre may tread with caution but it will not kow-tow completely to the ally, the sources added.

Keeping such uncertainties in mind, the Centre feels a two-year window will be a realistic time frame to wrap up modalities if a solution is found. “It (the two-year window) is something that even the Morcha is looking at…. particularly when it knows that there is little hope of getting a state of Gorkhaland,” a source said.

A Trinamul leader today denied that there was any pressure from the party to delay a settlement. “It is the common man who has suffered. We want a solution as soon as possible. We are going into the talks with a positive mind. Hopefully, we will work out something,” the Trinamul leader said.

The Centre’s draft formula borrows heavily from the 1966 Delhi act, effectively a compromise formula that governed the capital till it was granted partial statehood in 1991.

The act instituted a representative Delhi Metropolitan Council headed by a chairperson. The council reported to the Delhi Administration, which was headed by the lieutenant governor. Unlike governors, lieutenant governors enjoy substantial administrative powers.

In the Centre’s proposal, an elected representative body will report directly to the Bengal governor, virtually creating a Union territory within a state.

Home ministry officials conceded that the Telangana announcement was a huge setback to efforts to resolve the Gorkhaland issue. “Their hopes were suddenly revived because of that announcement,” said an official. The official hoped that the Morcha would be more amenable to the Centre’s proposal this time.

The eight-member Morcha delegation will have talks with minister of state for home Ajay Maken, Trinamul minister Dinesh Trivedi and Bengal government’s representatives, ministers Asok Bhattacharya and Surjya Kanta Mishra, tomorrow at North Block.