Alvi out of new team of Congress spokespersons

The Congress on Sunday dropped Rashid Alvi from its panel of spokespersons while inducting three new faces and retaining the existing three. HT reports.

The Congress on Sunday dropped Rashid Alvi from its panel of spokespersons while inducting three new faces and retaining the existing three.

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The three new spokespersons are Raj Babbar, Bhakta Charan Das and Meem Afzal. Renuka Chowdhary, PC Chacko, Sandeep Dikshit have been retained in the panel while Mohan Prakash and Shakeel Ahmed make a comeback.

While film actor-turned-politician Babbar is a Lok Sabha MP from Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh), Das, a former Union minister, is a Lok Sabha MP from Kalahandi (Orissa). Urdu enthusiast and journalist Meem Afzal is a former Rajya Sabha MP who was India's ambassador in Turkmenistan and Angola.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi made the announcement saying the appointment of spokespersons has been made by party president Sonia Gandhi with immediate effect.

Both Mohan Prakash and Shakeel Ahmed had earlier been spokespersons. They are also special invitees to the Congress Working Committee and have also been AICC in-charge of some states.

Prakash is in-charge of party affairs in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, while Ahmed looks after West Bengal and Jharkhand.