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Congress general secretary Kamal Nath made it clear on Thursday that the party is not "looking to destabilise the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government" at the Centre. But he added in the same breath, "If the NDA falls because of its own contradictions, we will deal with the situation as and when it arises."
Kamal Nath was addressing reporters in Guwahati on the eve of the two-day conclave of 14 Congress chief ministers being held in Guwahati from Friday.
He said, "The Congress is not meeting in Guwahati in pursuit of power. Rather, we are looking at improving our own performance."
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and a host of central politicians will attend the intensive and interactive sessions, Kamal Nath said. Gandhi will address a press conference -- her first in two years -- on Saturday.
Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told rediff.com that the Congress party's mantra at the Guwahati conclave, where Gandhi plans to project her party as one that knows how to govern, will be 'good governance, responsive administration and innovative schemes'.
Gandhi will review the performance of the 14 state governments run by her party and interact with the think tank on how to manage the politics of certain basic administrative, economic and social issues in such a way that it distinguishes the Congress from other parties.
Gogoi, whose government will complete one year in power a month from now, said, "Mrs Sonia Gandhi wants that the Congress should remain committed to reforms and at the same time focus on infrastructure, health, education, rural development and other basic social issues."
"The message that will go out from Guwahati," he said, "will be: only the Congress can provide good governance."
Apart from the 14 Congress chief ministers, the Guwahati conclave will be attended by almost all top party leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, Jairam Ramesh and all the general secretaries.
Gogoi said it would be the first time such a conclave has moved out of Delhi. The meeting will take a stand on issues such as "right-sizing" of government, labour reforms, power reforms, fiscal management and the World Trade Organisation, on which party leaders have been speaking in different voices in different fora.
Congress chief ministers are busy preparing for the conference. Amarinder Singh, the newly elected chief minister of Punjab, has prepared a detailed paper on how to reap the benefits of the post-WTO regime. According to him, the WTO has opened new opportunities in the global market for Punjab's farmers.
Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh plans to showcase the success of his district government experiment, Panchayati Raj, the cooperative movement, food-for-work scheme and education guarantee scheme. His Chhattisgarh counterpart Ajit Jogi is harping on the theme of making the tribal-dominated state a "power hub" of the country.
One of the organisers said the meeting would be interactive and business-like. "It will not be like chief ministers dishing out lists of achievements routinely prepared by bureaucrats," a Congress general secretary said.
The general secretary said Gandhi was of the opinion that unless the Congress chief ministers set a good example, the party would not be able to win the next general election. "She wants a creative, dynamic and pragmatic approach," he said. "The message should go down well with the masses."
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