Abhishek Singhvi reinstated as Congress spokesman

Abhishek Singhvi has been reinstated as a Congress spokesperson after a gap of over one and half month since the party took him off as its public face following a controversy over his appearance in a lottery case in Kerala High Court.

All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said "he (Singhvi) has told the party leadership that it was an error of judgement on his part. He has now been called back as party spokesperson. He will hold a press conference tomorrow."

In the first week of October, Singhvi was barred from holding media briefings. The appearance of Singhvi, an eminent lawyer, in the High Court in the lottery case had raised a storm in the Kerala unit of Congress which had launched

a campaign against promoters of lotteries from outside the state and senior state Congress leaders had complained to the AICC over his action.

The ruling Left Democratic Front had seized the issue to strike back at the Congress-led United Democratic Front which has taken up the lotteries as one of the major issues in the campaign for civic polls this month. Singhvi, who is also the deputy chairman of the AICC media department, had earlier maintained that he was appearing for the Government of Bhutan in support of a central government enactment and regulation of 2010 and it had nothing to do with politics.

Later, however, he announced his decision to withdraw from the case to "avoid any communication gap or controversy".