Rahul Gandhi interacts with new Cong spokespersons

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi held interactions with newly-appointed party spokespersons today as part of his efforts to tone up the Congress media set-up.

Five new spokespersons Raj Babbar, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash, Meem Afzal and Bhakta Charan Das were appointed by the AICC on Sunday last, while Renuka Chowdhury, Sandeep Dikshit and P C Chacko were retained for the same post.

Rashid Alvi, who is believed to be tipped for a larger role as in-charge of some state, was the only spokesperson to be dropped. At the outset, the Congress Vice-President congratulated all of them for the party’s victory in Karnataka.

During his interaction with the spokespersons, Rahul sought to know the media response system of parties like BJP and those of the Left. He also asked about the number of spokespersons these parties have, party sources said.

Rahul is learnt to have asked how the party decides the names of those leaders, who represent Congress on various television channels.

After Rahul’s interaction was over, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi briefed the new spokespersons about the do’s and don’ts during media briefing. Of late, the Congress has taken a number of initiatives to strengthen its media presence. A seven-member high power team, which also had its formal meeting recently, was set up to formulate the party’s responses on key issues.

Rahul has been focusing a lot on increasing the party’s presence on social media.

PTI