Expanding its panel of spokespersons as part of preparations for this year's Lok Sabha polls, the Congress Tuesday appointed union minister Shashi Tharoor and party MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi to the post.

The party appointed five "senior spokespersons" and 13 "spokespersons", according to an official announcement.

The senior spokespersons are union ministers P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and former union minister Mukul Wasnik.

The spokespersons are Jyotiraditya Scindia, P Chacko, Raj Babbar, Randeep Surjewala, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Sandeep Dikshit, Sanjay Jha, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Shakeel Ahmed, Shakti Sinh Gohil and Shobha Ojha, apart from Tharoor and Singhvi.

Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar died last week. A report by a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) said she died of poisoning.

Singhvi resigned as spokesperson in 2012 in the wake of a CD controversy surrounding him.

The party earlier had five official spokespersons.