Congress to expand its media team

Gearing up for the 2014 national polls, the Congress is in the process of inducting fresh faces into its media team, party sources said Monday.

The Congress is bringing in new faces to project the party line on TV debates, the decibels of which are going to go up in the run-up to the polls scheduled April-May.

The effort would also be to counter negative propaganda against the Congress, especially the kind of projection the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is getting.

The decision on the media team would be taken after the Dec 8 results of assembly polls in five states.

The sources said the decision is based on the idea to utilise the talent available in the party and should not be seen as a review of the performance of the existing team.

However, reallocation of work for some is not ruled out, they said.

Haryana Minister Randip Singh Surjewala, holding official party briefings of late, is being considered.

At present the Congress spokespersons include P.C. Chacko, Bhakta Charan Das, Raj Babbar, Meem Afzal, Sandip Dikshit and Surjewala.

In May, the Congress dropped former Rajya Sabha member Rashid Alvi as spokesperson while bringing in Babbar, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash, Afzal and Das.

Prakash and Ahmed have not been briefing the media since their elevation as general secretaries in June.