A year after quitting the Congress party, actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar is set to join Shiv Sena on Tuesday, a party functionary said.
Matondkar, who had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai North constituency on a Congress ticket, will join the party in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Harshal Pradhan, a close aide of CM was quoted as saying by PTI.
The 46-year-old has been nominated by the Sena to the Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota. A list of 12 names, including Matondkar’s name has been forwarded to Governor BS Koshyari by the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for their nomination from the governor’s quota. The governor is yet to approve the list.
Matondkar, who joined the Congress party five months before the 2019 Lok Sabah elections, had announced her exit from the party in September last year, citing “petty in-house politics”. She had said that her political and social sensibilities refused to allow vested interests in the party to use her as a means to fight petty in-house politics instead of working on a bigger goal in Mumbai Congress.
“I’ve resigned from the Indian National Congress. The first thought of resignation came to me when after my repeated efforts, no action was taken in pursuance of my letter dated 16th May, addressed to then Mumbai Congress President Mr Milind Deora. Thereafter, to my utter dismay, the said letter containing privileged and confidential communication was conveniently leaked to the media, which according to me, was an act of 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 had said in a statement.
The actor-turned-politician had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against BJP’s sitting MP Gopal Shetty but had hogged the limelight with her campaign and political understanding.
