With the feel-good factor (being propagated by the BJP-led government) refusing to get drowned by the fee-bad theory (a Congress party attempt at neutralising the government's aggressive media campaign), it was matter of time before the country's main Opposition party hired some professional help.

Congress sources told indiantelevision.com that journalist-turned-PR consultant, Dilip Cherian's Perfect Relations has been mandated to take care of the communications and media management activities for the party.

The sources also indicated that Perfect relations, which had earlier also had tried unsuccessfully to undertake PR activities for political parties during the last general elections, has been on the job for the last 10 days.

The Congress account is valid till the elections are held and would not be restricted to any particular region. "It's nation-wide activity that the agency has to undertake," a senior Congress leader said, however, refusing to divulge the financial details. But industry estimates put the account to be worth over Rs 5 million.

According to Perfect Relations' consulting partner Dilip Cherian, "The communications and media management mandate would be undertaken at various levels, including being an interface between Congress' main strategy and those of its allies."

Cherian also told indiantelevision.com that the multi-layered strategy would target different aspects of the rival parties of Congress in the sense that a game plan to counter Telegu Desam Party (a Bharatiya Janata Party ally in the coalition government) would be different from the strategy to counter the 'India Shining' campaign.

He, however, refused to give out any details on the financial aspects the agreement, saying, "We don't talk about the financial part of any accounts or deals we do."

Others who were in the fray for the Congress PR account, according to Congress sources, included Genesis PR, Shandwik and IPAN.

The overall Congress media campaign is being supervised by senior leader and a trusted lieutenant of Sonia Gandhi, Ambika Soni, with the nitty-gritty's being co-ordinated by Jairam Ramesh out of an office in South End in Delhi. Others helping him include Salman Khurshid.

Though Leo Burnett outfit, Orchard, is said to have bagged the advertising account for the Congress, there seems to be still some uncertainty over the matter. Ideally, the PR and image consultant and the agency doing the creatives for a media campaign should have some synergy between them and exchange notes, but, according to information available, Perfect Relations executives are yet to meet up with the agency doing the creatives for the Congress ad campaign.