Months before the Maharasthra Assembly elections, filmstar turned politician Urmila Matondkar quits Congress. The actress joined Congress in March 2019 just ahead of the General Elections.
Matondkar in her statement had mentioned how the Mumbai Congress was not functioning properly and how the non-performers in the party were kept despite concerns raised by her in a letter to then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora. The letter was subsequently leaked in the media.
She said in a statement, ” the said letter containing privileged and confidential communication was conveniently leaked to the media which according to me was an act of blatant betrayal.”
Her resignation brought out the internal rift within the Mumbai Congress Party out in the open. Matondkar also criticized certain members of the party for their lack of co-ordination and inability to mobilize the party from the grass-root level.
She said, ” It is obvious that the key functionaries of Mumbai Congress are either unable or not committed to bring about a change and transformation in the organisation for betterment of the party.”
After her defeat, Matondkar had raised the issue of the lack of co-ordintion within the party during her election campaign for the 2019 General Election. She had contested for the Mumbai North constituency but had lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty.
She also had accused the Congress of letting petty in-house politics sabotage her run for the North Mumbai constituency. She said,”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.”
This is not good news for the Congress who have been in damange control mode post the General elections which handed the BJP led NDA government a majority. This is not the first time that the Party in-fighting has come out in public for the Congress. After the Rajasthan Assembly election of 2019, current Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan Congress Chief Sachin Pilot had visible differences.