Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide has reportedly met actor turned politician Urmila Matondkar according to a Times Now report. Urmila Matondkar had recently quit the Congress party after a brief stint with the party.
#Breaking | Sources suggest that Urmila Matondkar is in touch with top functionaries of @ShivSena, after she formally quit @INCIndia recently.
Details by TIMES NOW’s Kajal. Listen in. pic.twitter.com/KISepDqnVU
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) September 17, 2019
According to the report, Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Milind Narvekar has been in touch with the ex-Congress leader perhaps in talks to join Shiv Sena after she quit Congress only last week.
However, the party seems to have clarified that as of now, it was only a courtesy call to Urmila Matondkar owing to the closeness that that Thackery family and Urmila Matondkar share.
While resigning from the Congress party, Urmila said that her political and social sensibilities do not allow her to let vested interests in the party to use her as a means to fight petty in-house politics. Urmila’s reason for offering resignation from the party reveals that everything is not going well in the Mumbai Congress and the party is plagued with internecine battles.
The resignation came merely after 5 months since she joined the party. The fallout among the Congress leaders in Mumbai has come out in open, especially after the party fared disastrously in the General elections 2019. Soon after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of Congress President, Milind Deora too had resigned from the post of Mumbai Congress President. Another senior Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam is at loggerheads with Milind Deora as he hailed Deora’s removal as Congress Mumbai President.
Interestingly, Urmila had spoken at length about how it was the Congress’ ideology that had attracted her towards politics. Now, if indeed the speculations of her joining Shiv Sena are true, it would be a diametrically opposite ideological stand that she would be taking. While in politics, there are no permanent enemies and friends, the change might even surprise her supporters.
Interestingly, Urmila, if rumours are to be believed, won’t be the first ex-Congress leader to join Shiv Sena. Earlier, Priyanka Chaturvedi who was the national spokesperson of Congress had also joined Shiv Sena after quitting the Congress party. For Chaturvedi, the reason for quitting was inaction on the part of the party on acting against Congress workers who had misbehaved with her earlier.
While Priyanka Chaturvedi and Urmila Matondkar both were in the party, it was rumoured that there was a rivalry brewing between the two. Both were vying for the North Mumbai seat, however, Congress had chosen to give a ticket to new entrant Urmila and not a party loyalist like Chaturvedi.
When Matondkar had quit the party, on the same day, Chaturvedi had tweeted about “Karma catching up” and many had speculated that it was meant for Urmila Matondkar.
जाको राखे साइयां, मार सके न कोय। pic.twitter.com/ZMjM6hULSB
— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) September 10, 2019
If Matondkar does join Shiv Sena, it would interesting to see how this rumoured political rivalry pans out.
