Actor Urmila Matondkar and former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh on Tuesday announced their resignations from the Congress.

Urmila, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in April from Mumbai, said she was quitting owing to “petty in-house politics” in the party.

Singh said he was leaving the Congress as he did not agree with the party’s stand on Article 370.

The announcement by Urmila, who had bagged 241,431 votes across six segments of the Mumbai North seat, came as a huge embarrassment for the Congress which is struggling to keep its flock together ahead of the Assembly polls.

Urmila, who joined the Congress in March this year, was defeated by BJP stalwart Gopal Shetty in the polls.

In a statement, Matondkar said the key functionaries of the Mumbai Congress are either unable to or are not committed to transforming the party.

“I have resigned from the Indian National Congress. My political and social sensibilities refuse to allow vested interests in the party to use me as a mean to fight petty in-house politics instead of working on a bigger goal in Mumbai Congress,” she said.

Urmila said the first thought of resignation came to her mind when she realised that “no action” was being taken despite her “repeated efforts” in her letter dated May 16 addressed to the then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora.

In her letter, Urmila had criticised the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Sanjay Nirupam, former Mumbai Congress president.

“Thereafter, to my utter dismay, the letter containing privileged and confidential communication was conveniently leaked to the media, which according to me, was an act of a blatant betrayal. Needless to say, no one from the party was apologetic or even concerned towards me for the same despite my repeated protests,” she said.