In a first-of-its-kind initiative launched by the exchange4media group 50 Party Spokespersons were ranked and honoured for their work as political advocates of their respective political parties.

At the event held at India International Centre on April 28, veteran political spokesperson and Member of Parliament, Sudhanshu Trivedi was awarded the first place in the list that saw 5 non-BJP Spokespersons in top 10

Randeep Singh Surjewala and Abhishek Manu Singhvi of Congress were ranked at no. 3 and no. 5 respectively followed by Raghav Chadha of AAP at no. 6, Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena at no. 7  and Anurag Bhadouria of Samajwadi Party at no. 10.

Amongst BJP leader Sambit Patra bagged second rank, Gaurav Bhatia was at no.4, Syed Zafar Islam at no.8 and Shaziya Ilmi was no.9.

Others who received rankings included  were Derek O Brian of TMC at no. 11, Pavan Khera of Congress at no.12, Supriya Srinate  of Congress at no.13,Nalin Kohli of BJP at no.14, Jaiveer Gill of Congress at no.15, Sanjay Mayukh of BJP at no.16, Gaurav Vallabh of Congress at no.17,Ghanshyam Tiwari of Samajwadi Party at no.18, Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena at no.19 and Amit Malviya of BJP at no.20.

Tehseen Poonawala of Congress was ranked no.21 followed by  Nupur Sharma, Prem Shukla and Shehzaad Poonawala of BJP at no’ 22, 23 and 24 respectively. Sanjay Singh of AAP was ranked no.25,Manoj Jha of RJD no. 26, Sushmita Dev of TMC no.27, Sanju Verma of BJP no.28,Ragini Nayak and Shama Mohamed at no. 29 and 30 respectively.

Charu Pragya and Shweta Shalini of BJP were ranked at no’s 31 and 32, Charan Singh Sapra, Akhilesh  Pratap Singh, Rajeev Gowda and Madhu Gaud Yakshi of Congress ranked at no’s 33, 34, 35 and 36 respectively. KC Tyagi  of JDU, Mahua Moitra  of TMC and Pinaki Mishra of BJD were ranked at 37,38 and 39 in that order. Jay Panda, Gurupraksh Paswan, Aparajia Sarangi and Tom Vaddakan from BJP were placed at no’s 40, 41,42 and 43  respectively.  

They were followed by Anshul Avijit of Congress ranked at no. 44, Jyotsna Tirunagari  of TDP at no.45, Raju Bista of BJP at no.46 ,K Ravi Chandra Reddy of YSRCP at no.47,Sravan Dasoju of Congress at no.48 and Mahesh Bharat Tapse of NCP at  no. 49. Saravanan Annadurai  of DMK was ranked at no.50     

The selection process was based on the criteria of quality of argument, uniqueness of points, presentation style, credibility and visibility. The winners were selected after a long exhaustive screening process by the editorial board of exchange4media.

The awards were preceded by an insightful conference that included fireside chats and panel discussions covering topics related to political discourse in the country as well as dealing with  brickbats and criticism that political spokespeople are often exposed to for their work in public sphere. Also forming part of discussions was the evolving role of political spokespersons and the need to distinguish cacophony and communication.

The first of its kind concept to recognise men and women involved in political life who serve as the public face of their parties; a job that often comes with more than a fair share of criticism was lauded by attending spokespersons and dignitaries.