Congress gets new media team in UP, feud erupts

Lucknow: The UP Congress has announced a new 22- member media team that will present the party’s view point in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The new team, formed after the media panels were dissolved last month and the aspirants were asked to take a written test about basic political issues last month, includes several new leaders.

The 14-member media team will be led by Rajiv Bakshi as coordinator and includes the sons of prominent Congress leaders. Tanuj Punia is the son of Congress MP P.L. Punia while Saif Ali Naqvi is the son of former Congress MP Zafar Ali Naqvi. Zeeshan Haider is the son of veteran party leader Amir Haider.

Others include Hilal Naqvi, Ashok Singh, Onkar Singh, Anshu Awasthi , Mukesh Singh Chauhan and Suchi Biswas, who is the sole woman member in the team.

The media team includes a separate section of special invitees which has four members of the earlier team. These include Virendra Madan, Dujendra Tripathi, Amarnath Agarwal and Surendra Rajput. This team will step in on the request of the media team.

Another media input team has been set up with Subodh Srivastava as its head. This team will provide input to the spokespersons on crucial political issues.

The announcement of the new media team has, expectedly led to bickering by those who have been dropped. A former party spokesman claimed that the new team was inexperienced and would not be able to face rivals in the election year.

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