Cong prez poll: G-23 leaders Tewari, Chavan among 30 who back Mallikarjun Kharge. Check full list

As many as 30 Congress leaders – including some from the rebel G-23 group – have shown their support for their colleague Mallikarjun Kharge who filed his nomination for the party’s forthcoming presidential elections on Friday.

The candidature of the 80-year-old Dalit leader Kharge was announced after backing from backing from the Gandhis, according to some reports. He will be up against Congress MP and former union minister Shashi Tharoor and Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi when the elections are held next month.

In more drama ahead of the Congress presidential polls, Digvijaya Singh, who only announced Thursday about his decision to run for the top job, opted out of the race saying he cannot contest against Kharge. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot had also pulled out after apologising to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi for the mass rebellion of MLAs in his state.

Both the leaders have proposed the candidature of Kharge.

Tharoor and Kharge – two of the most prominent faces of the Congress party – held press briefings after they filed the nomination papers. However, there was a difference between the nature of the discussions the two contestants triggered. While Tharoor openly welcomed the news of Kharge contesting the polls, saying “many candidates are needed for the party’s benefit”, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha refused to talk about the MP’s candidature. Kharge thanked his party leaders supporting him in the Congress presidential polls, and said he is “fighting for a big change.”

Here’s the list of Congress leaders who have proposed Kharge’s candidature:

AK Antony
Ashok Gehlot
Digvijaya Singh
Ambika Soni
Mukul Wasnik
Anand Sharma
Ajay Maken
Bhupinder Hooda
Tariq Anwar
Abhishek Singhvi
Salman Khurshid
Akhilesh PD Singh
Deepender S Hooda
Narayanswamy
Pramod Tiwari
Vaithilingam
PL Punia
Avinash Pande
Rajeev Shukla
Syed Naseer Hussain
Manish Tewari
Raghuvir Singh Meena
Dhiraj Prasad Sahu
Prithviraj Chavan
Kamleshwar Patel
Tara Chand
Moolchand Meena
Dilip Gurjar
Sanjay Kapoor
Vinit Punia