Rashid Alvi dropped as spokesperson from revamped Congress team

NEW DELHI: Rashid Alvi was dropped as Congress spokesperson with the AICC today bringing in a new team of eight spokespersons, retaining existing three and inducting five fresh faces.

The new faces are Raj Babbar, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash, Meem Afzal and Bhakta Charan Das.

Renuka Chowdhury, Sandeep Dikshit and P C Chacko were retained as spokespersons.

The announcement was made by Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi, who said the appointments of spokespersons have been made by party chief Sonia Gandhi with immediate effect.

While Babbar is a Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, Das, a former Union Minister, is an MP from Odisha. Meem Afzal is a former MP who has worked as India's ambassador in Turkmenistan.

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

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

Alvi is the lone spokesperson in the outgoing team who has not found a place in the new team.

At the Chintan Shivir of the Congress at Jaipur sometime back, Rahul Gandhi had hailed Alvi along with Delhi and Rajasthan Chief Ministers Shiela Dikshit and Ashok Gehlot respectively. Alvi hails from Uttar Pradesh and has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh till sometime back.