Bengaluru/New Delhi: Congress MLA and state minister for food and civil supplies, Dinesh Gundu Rao has been appointed as Congress spokesperson along with other 17 Congress leaders from across the country.

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi assigned 17 leaders to the job of spokesperson on Tuesday. Among these Ajay Maken, C P Joshi, Satyavrata Chaturvedi, and Shakeel Ahamed designated as chief spokespersons of the party.  However Anand Sharma, Gulam Nambi Azad, Mukul Vasnik, P Chidambaram will continue in the same job.

Dinesh Gundu Rao and film actor Kushbu are fresh inductees. With all 17 appointments the number of spokesperson has risen to 31. On the other hand, Sonia also named 31 panelists from the party to take on debates in the television channels, while Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken will head communication department and Media wing of the Congress party.