Mumbai: The Shiv Sena plans to induct actor Urmila Matondkar into the party fold Tuesday, hoping to add a nationally-recognised face and voice, well conversant in Marathi, Hindi as well as English, to represent the party.
Matondkar is likely to join the Shiv Sena in the presence of party president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and State Minister Aaditya Thackeray after which she might address a press conference to make her stand clear, a party source said.
The actor had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, also a senior party functionary, told reporters, “She is anyway a Shiv Sainik. She may join the Shiv Sena formally tomorrow….Our women leadership is getting stronger.”
The party has already nominated Matondkar to the state legislative council, with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi having recommended her name along with 11 others to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari earlier this month. Although the government had requested Koshyari to revert in 15 days, the governor is yet to respond.
“Urmila Matondkar has always stated that she respects Balasaheb Thackeray. She is a typical Mumbaiite, a Marathi girl who loves the city and wants to work for its development.. She is well read in Marathi literature,” Manisha Kayande, a Shiv Sena MLC and party spokesperson, told ThePrint.
“In her campaign during the Lok Sabha polls and all her interviews, she has always come across as very genuine and clear in her thoughts,” she added. “She is a nationally known face and well conversant in Marathi as well as English. She will be an asset.”
Matondkar did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages seeking her comment.
‘Matondkar’s tackling of Kangana Ranaut impressed party’
Multiple sources from the Shiv Sena said, the party leadership was particularly impressed with how Matondkar slammed actor Kangana Ranaut at a time when the Shiv Sena was also engaged in a war of words with the latter.
The controversy began with Ranaut’s claim that she “feared the Mumbai Police more than the movie mafia”, following which the Shiv Sena said she shouldn’t live in the Maharashtra capital if that were the case.
Ranaut then drew a parallel between Mumbai and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which triggered a more vehement response from the Shiv Sena. The Sena-controlled Mumbai civic body eventually served a demolition notice to Ranaut’s office bungalow in Bandra for alleged illegal construction and took action within 24 hours.
Matondkar, who has acted in films such as Masoom, Rangeela and Satya, lashed back at Ranaut for her equating Mumbai to ‘Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,’ her comments on nepotism in Bollywood and the industry being infested with drug abuse, asking her to look at her own home state of Himachal Pradesh.
“Urmila Matondkar is a good strong voice for the party against people like Kangana Ranaut,” a Shiv Sena leader who did not wish to be named said. “She took on Kangana Ranaut strongly. From what I understand, the party approached her after the Kangana controversy.”
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said Matondkar has experience and a credible profile. “The way she campaigned during the Lok Sabha election was very dignified. There were people who said nasty things about her, but she didn’t get into any position of hitting back at them and concentrated on her campaign,” Chaturvedi said. “She has been speaking about Maharashtra vociferously, is well read, has contributed to the state through her work in the film industry.”
“She is known for conducting herself very gracefully,” the MP added. “She also conducted herself very gracefully during the whole controversy with Kangana. She spoke for Bollywood boldly even when the industry was silent about it. Those are true values.”
Actor’s Congress stint
Matondkar joined the Congress in March 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, emphasising that she is in it for the long haul.
The actor contested from the Mumbai North constituency, but lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Gopal Shetty. Matondkar then abruptly resigned from the Congress six months later citing “petty in-house politics”.
The actor in her statement had said key functionaries of the Mumbai Congress were “either unable or not committed” to better the party’s functioning.
“My political and social sensibilities refuse to allow vested interests in the party to use me as a means to fight petty in-house politics instead of working on a bigger goal in Mumbai Congress,” she added.
Even as the Shiv Sena and Congress are allies now, the latter did not express any objection when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, hammered out the 12 names to be nominated for the legislative council and the Shiv Sena put forth Matondkar’s nomination.
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Whatever brings food to table.
For the first time in my life, feel tempted to vote for the Shiv Sena.
Next stop BJP or AIMIM?