As many as 30 Congress leaders -- including some from the rebel G-23 group -- have shown their support to Mallikarjun Kharge who filed his nomination for the party's presidential elections on Friday.
Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Hooda are the members of the pro-reform G23 group who wrote a letter to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi.
Kharge 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.
Tharoor, who was also part of the G-23 group, filed five sets of nomination papers, while former Jharkhand minister Tripathi filed a single set of poll papers with Madhusudan Mistry, the chairman of the Congress's Central Election Authority.
The 80-year-old Kharge appeared to be a clear favourite for the Congress presidential election as a galaxy of leaders were present by his side when he filed his nomination papers at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi.
No one from the Gandhi family was present at the All India Congress Committee headquarters when the leaders filed their nominations for the election.
Kharge 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.
Friday was the last day for filing nomination papers.
Over 9,100 delegates are eligible to cast their votes in the October 17 election.
The result will be announced on October 19.
Here's the list of Congress leaders who have proposed Kharge's candidature:
1. Salman Khurshid
2. Akhilesh Prasad Singh
3. Deepender Hooda
4. Narayanasamy
5. V. Vaithilingam
6. Pramod Tiwari
7. P. L. Punia
8. Avinash Pandey
9. Rajeev Shukla
10. Syed Naseer Hussain
11. Manish Tewari
12. Raghuvir Singh Meena
13. Dhiraj Prasad Sahu
14. Tarachand Bhagora
15. Prithviraj Chavan
16. Kamleshwar Patel
17. Mool Chand Meena
18. Gunjan Patel
19. Sanjay Kapoor
20. Vinit Punia
21. A K Antony
22. Ashok Gehlot
23. Ambika Soni
24. Mukul Wasnik
25. Anand Sharma
26. Singhvi
27. Ajay Maken
28. Bhupender Hooda
29. Digvijaya Singh
30. Tariq Anwar
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