Urmila Matondkar's letter flaying aides of Sanjay Nirupam surfaces

The letter is dated May 16, a week before the Lok Sabha 2019 election results were announced, and addressed to the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief, Milind Deora who announced his resignation from the position on Sunday

The infighting in the Mumbai Congress has taken a new twist with a letter of a party member and actress Urmila Matondkar, making scathing comments against trusted aides of Sanjay Nirupam, her senior colleague on Monday. Urmila Matondkar, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha 2019 elections from the Mumbai North constituency, wrote the letter to the party leadership criticising the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkarand Bhushan Patil, close associates of Sanjay Nirupam, a former Mumbai Congress president.

Also Read: Sanjay Nirupam slams Deora on resignation, says it cannot come with conditions

The letter is dated May 16, a week before the Lok Sabha 2019 election results were announced, and addressed to the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief, Milind Deora who announced his resignation from the position on Sunday. In the missive, she highlighted the failure of party leadership at the local level on coordination, failure to provide proper resources to her by the two campaign coordinators and mobilising workers at grassroots. The actress turned politician accused the duo of showing a "total lack of coordination, efficiency and honesty, ensuring a disastrous outcome".

Urmila Matondkar stated that the joint poll rally addressed by senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in suburban Borivli in April was organised in an "extremely shoddy" manner, bringing huge personal embarrassment for her. In the letter, the 45-year-old Congress memeber accused Kondvilkar of calling up her family members and asking them for money to fund her election campaign. Kondvilkar also asked Urmila Matondkar's family members to speak to Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel for release of campaign funds, she claimed. Matondkar also accused the duo of showing disrespect to North Mumbai district Congress president Ashok Sutrale.

She sought disciplinary action against the duo and demanded changes at the organisational level to ensure better and brighter future for the party. She said despite the hurdles, she managed to run a decent campaign and added she had highlighted certain issues with an intention to bring positive change in the party. Nirupam hit out at Deora after the letter became public. He tweeted, "young leader who desires to stabilise party at national level has released copies of complaint letter of an LS candidate to media houses to publish it. "It was addressed to him against party workers after
the election. Is this the way he is going to adopt to stabilise the party."

Meanwhile, Deora, in a statement, said, "A party and it's ideals are bigger than one individual. Some unpleasant and unwarranted commentary from certain quarters should be ignored and not countered. The Congress party has seen many upheavals and shall overcome this one too." Both Deora and Nirupam had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from South Mumbai and Mumbai North West, respectively, this year.

With inputs from PTI

Also Read: Election 2019: Urmila Matondkar files complaint with EC alleging mismatch in signatures on EVM form

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