Ajay Maken Ajay Maken

With exit polls projecting a gloomy scenario for it, Congress on Thursday had a brainstorming session with its media team to chalk out a strategy for its spokespersons appearing before television channels tomorrow when counting takes place.

The closed-door meeting took place at 15 Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, the Congress War Room, and was attended by 40 odd party spokespersons and television panelists.

In the meeting chaired by AICC Communication Department Chairman Ajay Maken, the spokespersons were given tips on how to defend the party while appearing before television channels from the kiosks put up in the AICC headquarters.

The spokespersons have been asked to maintain sobriety in their approach and accept people's verdict gracefully. At the same time they have been directed to attack BJP on its "unprecedented Rs 10 thousand crore campaign blitzkrieg".

They have also been asked to strongly defend the UPA government's performance as well as that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and not appear defensible about UPA's track record or the performance of the top leadership, sources said.

With doubts being raised in the media about Rahul's leadership in the eventuality of a bad show by Congress, the spokespersons were also briefed on how to tackle such questions.

"The combination of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was an ideal combination of experience, determination and youthful energy," party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told PTI.

"While the performance of Prime Minister and UPA was above par, the PM's credibility was above board. The PM and UPA have changed the dimension, outlook and social-political prism of the country by multi-dimensional paradigm. Rahul Gandhi contributed immensely both ideologically and through physical energy to the campaign," he said.

As the media raised the issue of absence of Rahul's pictures from miniatures of the AICC backdrops to be put up in the kiosks for television channels, Maken said the backdrop is the same in the AICC media briefing hall, which displays only the party's name and its hand symbol.

"How can we change the backdrop? These are exact miniatures of the backdrop at the AICC media briefing room.

Spokespersons will sit before these miniatures as spokespersons do in the media briefing room. When there is no picture of any individual leader in the original backdrop, how can we have them in the miniatures," Maken said.