Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the 2019 elections, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) constituted a media panel by appointing 29 leaders as the spokespersons.

The proposal by the OPCC chief Niranjan Patnaik for the committee was approved by the AICC.

The party has appointed seven senior party leaders -- Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Bijaylaxmi Sahoo, Prafulla Majhi, Hamid Hussain, Anshuman Mohanty, Sucharita Mohanty and Samarendra Mishra -- as the senior spokespersons in the media committee, informed journalist-turned-politician Satya Prakash Nayak, who is the head of OPCC's media communication, in a press release yesterday.

Similarly, Bibhu Prasad Tarai, Sasmita Behera, Binayak Das Mohapatra, Amiya Pandav, Sonali Sahoo, Manoj Mohapatra, Narayan Prasad Jena, Padmakar Guru, Debi Prusty, Prashant Satpathy, Nishikant Mishra, Archana Nandy, Himansu Lenka, Gobind Bhuyan, Rajani Kumar Mohanty, Sudarshan Das, Bismay Mohapatra, Amit Mohanty, Ashok Samal, Shailendu Mazumdar, Niku Pashayat and Smruti Ranjan Lenka were appointed as the spokesperson in the media panel.

The OPCC has given charge to Congress leaders Kailash Acharya, Ganeswar Behera, Arya Kumar Gyanendra and Debashish Patnaik to provide necessary information and suggestion to the media panel.

Besides, Dipak Kumar Mohapatra, Pradip Mohapatra, Om Prakash Sahoo, Manas Mohapatra and Surya Narayan Panda have been appointed as the media coordinator of the committee.