NEW DELHI: The opposition Congress is facing a serious leadership crisis in Jharkhand ahead of the five-phase assembly election which begins on November 30.In the past three months, four former state Congress presidents and one legislative party leader have resigned from the party. The latest is Sarfaraz Ahmad, who joined the JMM on Tuesday. Ahmad was the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president of united Bihar and a serving member of the party for long.On Thursday he is all set to file nomination from Gandey, an assembly seat he represented in 2009. The seat has gone to the JMM in alliance as the Congress stood third on this seat in 2014 after the BJP and JMM. “We could have stopped the departure of such a senior leader by giving some other seat to JMM. It is sad,” said a Congress leader from Jharkhand.Before Ahmad, in September Ajoy Kumar left the Congress to join the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. Kumar had blamed the central as well as state leaders for encouraging rivalry among the state leaders. After Kumar, the party made Rameshwar Oraon the next PCC president.With Oraon as party chief, another former PCC president, Sukhdeo Bhagat, headed for the BJP in October and is now the BJP candidate against Oraon from Lohardaga. Bhagat had contested the Lohardaga Lok Sabha election and was defeated with a narrow margin. He had blamed Oraon for his defeat.Another former state Congress president and former Rajya Sabha member joined the All Jharkhand Students Union earlier this month and is contesting from Ghatsila on an AJSU ticket. His situation was similar to Ahmad as his seat has gone to the JMM in the alliance. The Congress is contesting 31 seats out in alliance with the JMM and RJD in Jharkhand, which has 81 assembly seats.Senior Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahai blamed the situation on the new team of leaders in Delhi and Jharkhand. “I have been raising this issue but (interim party chief) Sonia ji is not accessible. Those who are working on Jharkhand are managers and not leaders,” he told ET.