Media managers and spin doctors of the Congress will be meeting here on Friday against the backdrop of various scams which have put the party and the Centre on the defensive for the last few months.
Though the party has not disclosed a agenda for the meeting saying that it is a routine exercise, sources said over 20 select leaders who have been dealing with the media directly or indirectly, would take part in the deliberations.
This means the meeting would not be confined to the media department.
The party’s “war room” functioning at a MP bungalow at Gurudwara Rakabganj Road here, may play some role in the media management.
The “war room” managers had earlier failed to deliver in the Bihar Assembly polls. Party insiders are blaming them for the debacle privately saying that had chalked out the election strategy and monitored the electioneering activities on the daily basis. Interestingly, the managers could not even release copies of the election manifesto in New Delhi. Now, some old guards have been included in the team of “war room” beca-use of the coming Assembly elections in five states. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary and media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi will preside over the Friday meeting, sources said. The media department consists of five spokespersons — Abhishek Singhvi, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash, Manish Tiwari, Jayanti Natarajan — and secretary Tom Vadakkan. Party general secretary and Union minister Mukul Wasnik too is attached to the department as a spokesperson. Besides, two committees related to the media management include the publicity committee and the group to look into future challenges. They consist of senior leaders including Digvijay Singh, M. Veerappa Moily, Rahul Gandhi, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, Nirmal Khatri, Jairam Ramesh, Jagdish Tytler, Vishwajit P Singh, Anil Shashtri, Salman Khurshid, Dr G. Parameshwar, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and Sandeep Dikshit.