Taking aim: Tarun Gogoi, guided by GOC, 51 Sub-area, Maj. Gen. G.S. Chima, checks out an automatic grenade launcher at the army mela in Guwahati on Sunday. The weapon can fire 50 grenades at a time if the trigger is kept pressed. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, March 24: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today asked Congress workers to concentrate their energy on the 2014 Lok Sabha election to ensure that the party swept the 14 seats, while identifying AIUDF as the primary challenge.

Gogoi’s call, which came during the inaugural session of the two-day third annual conference of Assam PCC spokespersons here, was also an attempt to convey that he was firmly in the saddle, notwithstanding moves by a section within the CLP to unseat him, a source close to the chief minister told The Telegraph.

Sources said Gogoi’s remark that the Congress should win all 14 seats in the state was also seen as an attempt to tell to the party’s rank and file to prepare for the polls in all constituencies despite the high command’s move to go for a pre-poll alliance with the AIUDF.

“I am not afraid of lies and criticism. Criticism makes me stronger, younger and energetic. Our target is now next year’s general elections in the country. We have to win all the Lok Sabha seats from Assam. The emergence of the AIUDF must be stopped,” Gogoi said amidst applause from a packed auditorium at Rabindra Bhawan here this morning.

The Congress has seven seats in the Lok Sabha.

The chief minister subsequently interacted with reporters but refused to respond to queries on the “dissidence” in the CLP.

In a memorandum submitted to AICC president Sonia Gandhi through Assam in-charge Digvijaya Singh, a group of 31 disgruntled legislators had warned that the party’s prospects in next year’s Lok Sabha polls appeared bleak, given the way “things are going on in the state”. The seven-page memorandum, which The Telegraph is privy to, used words like “comical” and “autocratic megalomania” to describe the chief minister and his style of functioning.

Gogoi said the spokespersons had a crucial role to play to project the party as well as the ruling Congress government in the right perspective before the people. “I do not want the spokespersons to tell lies and unnecessarily exaggerate the Congress’s achievements. They should maintain a line of control. They have to highlight the right picture of the party’s achievements,” he said.

“It is my government that has taken up the project of NRC update. Insurgency has been contained to a large extent,” he said.

PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita said the minority votes for the party had been eroded to some extent by the emergence of the AIUDF.

Power minister Pradyut Bordoloi, forest minister Rakibul Hussain and agriculture minister Nilamoni Sen Deka exhorted the spokespersons to keep themselves updated to avoid being caught on the wrong foot by media questions on various issues.

Among the prominent absentees were health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and parliamentary secretary (home) Bhupen Bora. While Sarma, who was supposed to deliver his speech during the post-lunch session, did not turn up as he was in New Delhi, Bora, who was also an appointed speaker in today’s session, did not turn up owing to personal engagements.

PCC media cell chairman Haren Das and chief spokesperson Mehdi Alam Bora said various issues would be discussed during the conference as to how the spokespersons should project the party to take it closer to the people before the Lok Sabha polls.