Rejig in Congress: Rahul makes senior ministers spokespersons
While the four ministers Chidambaram, Azad, Sharma, Khurshid and AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik have been designated senior spokespersons, Tharoor and Scindia are among the 13 spokespersons appointed by the party.
The need to strengthen the media team of AICC was being felt for a long time and it has been an area of focus for Rahul, who was instrumental in organising a series of media workshops and talent hunt to scout new media faces for the Congress.
A number of faces included in the list of spokespersons and television panelists this time have been close aides of Rahul and have Youth Congress or NSUI background.
Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza and former UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi have been included in the team of AICC spokespersons. It is for the first time in last many years that the AICC has two women spokespersons at a time.
After
Jayanthi
Natarajan
was
made
a
minister
in
UPA-II,
party
MP
Renuka
Chaudhary
had
replaced
her
as
Congress
spokesperson.
Last
year
she
was
also
dropped
and
since
then
there
was
no
regular
woman
spokesperson
in
AICC,
though
Oza
came
for
formal
briefings
once
or
twice.
Tharoor,
who
is
in
thick
of
media
glare
after
his
wife
Sunanda
Pushkar's
sudden
death
has
also
been
included
in
the
list.
Party
MP
Abhishek
Singhvi,
who
was
dropped
over
a
CD
controversy
in
May
2012,
is
back
as
spokesperson
while
Bhakta
Charan
Das
has
been
dropped
from
the
list.
Meem
Afzal,
who
was
one
of
the
national
spokespersons
of
AICC
media
team
is
also
out,
but
he
has
been
accommodated
in
the
24-member
Congress
team
of
television
panelists.
The new list of the 24-member team of media panelists includes Rahul's aides Ashok Tanwar, Meenakshi Natarajan and Mukesh Nayak, besides Jammu and Kashmir PCC chief Saifuddin Soz's son Salman Soz.
The lists of new spokespersons and media panelists have this time been approved jointly by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, a further indication of the Congress Vice President taking the centrestage. Earlier, such lists used to have the approval of the Congress President alone.
PTI