Congress' media outreach: Party inducts new faces to confront media

Bengaluru, Mar 25: In a desperate attempt to win back its lost perception in media, and to tone up party's media outreach, the new Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala has added 21 names to the existing list of party spokespersons.

The new developments gain importance as it is being considered as a precursor to the much-talked about anointment of Rahul Gandhi as the party president.

The list is a mix of youth and experience, with some prominent names including Ajay Maken, C P Joshi, Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Shakeel Ahmed as the new senior spokespersons.

This is in addition to the existing team of Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mukul Wasnik and P Chidambaram.

Actress Khushboo and Mumbai Youth Congress activist Priyanka Chaturvedi are among some other names in the newly list of spokespersons.

Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee is another big name in the list.

It is the first major exercise by Surjewala after replacing Maken as Chairman of the Media Department.

With this, the party now has 36 spokespersons, including senior spokespersons.

However, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, being the most accomplished among the party's spokesperson, hasn't been promoted to the senior category.

The new spokespersons include: Deepender Hooda, Gaurav Gogoi, Rajiv Satav, Sushmita Deb and RPN Singh, Dinesh Gundu Rao, P L Punia, Rajiv Gowda and Rajni Patil, Madhu Goud Yakshi, Vijay Inder Singla.

They will be spokespersons in addition to the existing team of Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ajoy Kumar, Jyotiraditya Scindia, P.C. Chacko, Raj Babbar, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Sandeep Dikshit, Sanjay Jha, Shaktisinh Gohil and Shobha Oza.

The new media panelists include: Manish Tiwari, Rajiv Shukla, Salman Soz, Amit Deshmukh, Rashmi Kant and Anant Gadgil.

OneIndia News