The Trinamool Congress (TMC) issued a statement here on Monday listing five of its Lok Sabha MPs and Derek O'Brien, the party's Rajya Sabha member and national spokesperson, as the designated persons to speak to the media, saying news channels had been speaking to people calling them "TMC supporters or sympathisers".
Besides O'Brien, the Mamata Banerjee-led party has approved the names of Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC Parliamentary Party Leader in the Lok Sabha), MPs Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mahua Moitra and Dinesh Trivedi as its national spokespersons.
The decision will come into effect from June 20.
"We have noticed that some channels are inviting guests on shows and referring to them as Trinamool supporters, Trinamool sympathisers etc. We do not subscribe to this. Only the six persons mentioned above are authorised to speak on behalf of the party to the national media.
"If you still choose to invite any person on the show other than an approved spokesperson, please do not call them TMC supporters or use TMC, Trinamool, AITC or any other term related to the All India Trinamool Congress," the statement said.
It comes days after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, in which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 18 of the 42 seats in the TMC-ruled West Bengal.