Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Dhenkanal, March 19:

The exodus from the Congress continued on Wednesday with 12 party leaders, including state spokesperson Durgaprasad Sahoo, resigning from the party in protest against their alleged neglect by the state leadership while distributing tickets for the coming elections.

The presidents of three blocks - Kamakshya Nagar, Kankadahad and Parjang – were among those who resigned from the Congress today."The state leadership, consisting of Jaydev Jena and Srikant Jena, has neglected every senior leader of the party. While there are many who have served the party loyally for the last 15 years, the party has nominated candidates who do not belong to the party," said Sahoo at a press conference here.

Some leaders present at the press conference alleged that the tickets were being distributed by the state leadership on monetary considerations.

While Congress has named Santosh Rout for Parjang constituency, Sankar Mohapatra has been nominated for Kamakshya Nagar constituency. Rout, who was with the BJD earlier, has recently joined the Congress party.

While senior Congress leader KP Singhdeo is likely to resign from the party, the mass resignation of the senior leaders from the party is bound to affect the poll prospects of the party in the coming elections.

Earlier, some former Zilla Parisad members and senior leaders of the district had resigned from the party blaming the state leadership.