Manish Tewari says Mallikarjun Kharge 'safe pair of hands' as G23 colleague Tharoor claims 'difference of treatment'

Congress leader Manish Tewari, a member of the dissident G-23 group, has thrown his weight behind his veteran party colleague Mallikarjun Kharge who will contest for the post of Congress president on October 17. The politician said Kharge can provide stability to the beleaguered party that currently needs a "safe pair of hands" and a "composed personality" at the helm.

Tewari's remark came after Shashi Tharoor -- Mallikarjun Kharge's electoral rival -- claimed some senior Congress leaders had been giving preferential treatment to the 80-year-old leader.

Tewari said Kharge had grown to be the towering figure he currently is, from the lowest posts in the party. "Congress needs the stability that Kharge can provide," he told ANI.

Tewari and Anand Sharma -- Tharoor's G-23 colleague -- are backing Kharge. Here is the list of leaders backing the politician.

AK Antony, Ashok Gehlot, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Abhishek Singhvi, Ajay Maken, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Digvijaya Singh, Tariq Anwar, Salman Khurshid, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Deepender Singh Hooda, V Narayanasamy, V Vaithilingam, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, Avinash Pandey, Rajeev Shukla, Syed Naseer Hussain, Raghuvir Singh Meena, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, Tarsem Chand Bagri, Prithviraj Chavan, Kamleshwar Patel, Moolchand Meena, Dilip Gajjar, Sanjay Kapoor and Vinit Punia.

Tharoor had said that there was no official Congress candidate and that the Gandhis were impartial in the internal polls.

However, on Thursday, he said many Congress veterans were giving him a cold shoulder.

He said on many occasions, senior political leaders welcome Kharge but not him.  

He claimed he visited several states to drum up support but the states' Congress chiefs didn't meet him.