Chidambaram and Khurshid included as senior spokespersons of Congress

The list includes Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Anant Gadgil, Ashok Tanwar, Balchandra Mungekar, Brijesh Kalappa, Chandan Yadav, C.R. Kesavan, Deepak Amin, Deepender Hooda, Krishna Byre Gowda, Meem Afzal, Meenakshi Natarajan, Mukesh Nayak, Nadeem Javed, P.L. Punia, Prem Chandra Mishra, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ragini Nayak, Rajeev Gowda, Salman Soz and Sanjay Nirupam.

The panelists on national media on state issues include Abdul Rasool Khan, Abhay Dubey, A. Narayan, Amrita Dhawan, Anil Bhardwaj, Barkha Shukla Singh, Bharat Kumar, Bhawana Jha, Chetan Rawal, Chitto Nysou, Dinesh Gundurao, Hilal Ahmed, Jaiveer Shergill, Jyoti Mani, Manik Tagore, Manoj Pandey, Mohammad Akbar, Mohit Sharma, Peter Alphonse, Pranav Jha, Ranju Ramawat, Rashmikant, Sachin Sawant, Sarwat Jehan Fatima, Shahnawaz Sheikh, Sulaiman Mohd. Khan, V.T. Balram, Victor Keishing, Vidit Chaudhry and Vivek Bansal.

Sources said the party was keen to increase its reach among people through various media.

Some leaders who met Rahul Gandhi after the AICC meet told him that there was a need to appoint "aggressive spokespersons" to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The party also has to contend with the growing presence of the Aam Aadmi Party, led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Lok Sabha elections are slated to take place in April-May.

Congress sources said Tuesday's expansion was "major" and the party had fewer spokespersons earlier. Sandeep Dikshit, Raj Babbar and P.C. Chacko are among the MPs who have been retained as spokespersons.