Senior ministers in Cong media team

Party also appoints 13 junior spokespersons

 With general elections just a few weeks away, the Congress appointed its top leaders — Union ministers P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Salman Khurshid — as senior spokespersons, ostensibly to articulate the party’s view.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and former Union minister Mukul Wasnik were also named senior spokespersons as the Congress high command set up a new media team for the party on Tuesday.

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi have approved their names as senior spokespersons with immediate effect,” said party general secretary and in-charge of its media cell Ajay Makan while announcing the names.

Enacting a major change in the party’s media team, the Congress high command also appointed 13 junior spokespersons. Union minister Shashi Tharoor, whose wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a hotel room in Delhi last week, figured in this list.

The party brought back Parliamentarian Abhishek Manu Singhvi into its media team as one of the 13 junior spokespersons nearly two years after he was dropped over an alleged sex tape.

While Congress leaders P C Chacko, Raj Babbar and Sandeep Dikshit were retained as party spokespersons, Bhakta Charan Das and Meem Afzal were drooped from the team. The party high command set up a 30-member team of television panelists to speak on state issues and accommodated Afzal into it. Party leader Dinesh Gundurao from Karnataka also figures in the list.

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza, former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Haryana minister Randip Surjewala, former Congress Legislature Party leader from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil, Rajya Sabha member Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Sanjay Jha were also appointed new junior spokespersons.