Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has put the party into election mode at a just-concluded high-level conclave of the party in Srinagar. The conclave was restricted to chief ministers of fifteen Congress-ruled states and some senior party leaders.

In her inaugural address to the Srinagar conclave, Sonia has made it clear that development and governance is going to be a key poll plank of Congress. She has sought to showcase Congress-ruled states as models of good governance.

The Congress chief attacked the economic performance of Vajpayee dispensation saying "economic growth rates have fallen since 1998 and the rate of investment has been the casualty." She criticised Vajpayee government's "failure" on employment generation front and asked party chief ministers to project Congress as a pro-poor party by going in for massive food-for-work programmes and launching a national employment guarantee scheme.

Sonia Gandhi also asked her party men not to allow RSS and VHP to polarise the society and divert focus from the theme of governance. Analysts also see in Congress' shift on the question of alliance a tacit acceptance that the party has little option other than joining hands with some regional parties to grab power.

Another important indicator of poll fever is the zealousness with which Congress and BJP are eyeing for upper caste votes. In Srinagar, Sonia Gandhi has endorsed the move by her party government in Rajasthan to have percent job reservation for economically weaker people among upper castes and a few days later BJP made a similar demand and added that a national commission would be set up for this.