Lucknow, Dec 11 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh Congress is rapidly losing its leaders to the Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The Congress has lost leaders and workers in almost 60 per cent of the districts in the state to these two parties.

The exodus from the Congress has helped the AAP, which is preparing to make inroads in state politics.

While former MP Annu Tandon led hundreds of her supporters to join the SP last month, party leaders and workers are quitting the party in the districts almost every day.

Nadeem Ashraf Jaisi, a senior Congress leader from Jais in Rae Bareli, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party earlier this year, said, "JNU alumnus Sandeep Singh, believed to be political advisor of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is to be blamed for pursuing a 'different ideology' that is far removed from what was pursued by Gandhi and Nehru. Senior party leaders are being sidelined."

Jaisi further said, "A person from 'Rihai Manch' (NGO), who has never worked for the Congress, has now been made Rae Bareli in-charge and UP Congress secretary. I felt suffocated in this set-up. As it is, Sandeep Singh is known more for his bad behaviour than his political work. Why would anyone stay in such a stifling atmosphere?"

About his joining the AAP, he said he was finally being given a chance to air his opinion and the party believed in democratic functioning.

Annu Tandon also said she found the atmosphere in the Uttar Pradesh Congress 'suffocating'.

Significantly, Jaisi quitting the Congress has been a major setback for the party in Rae Bareli where two of its MLAs (Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh) have already severed their ties with the party.

Rae Bareli is the only Lok Sabha seat that the Congress holds in Uttar Pradesh. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The nine senior Congressmen, expelled by the party in November last year, had also blamed Sandeep Singh for 'imposing the Left ideology on the Congress'.

A senior party leader said, "This also suggests that young Congress members are losing confidence in the state leadership due to faulty policies and are looking towards greener pastures. Many leaders are feeling suffocated after the Leftist leaders have been given charge of the most departments in the state."

Qaiser Jahan, who recently left the Congress to join the SP, said, "The Congress has become leaderless and directionless in Uttar Pradesh. Anyone who is in active politics, will find the situation unacceptable."

Haji Siraj Mehndi, who was expelled with nine other senior leaders in November last year, said, "I do not understand why the leaders are allowing people to leave the party when they should be reaching out to people. It is unbelievable that a political party is not taking any steps to check the exodus."