Actor-politician Urmila Matondkar resigns from Congress

Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar, who joined the Congress in March this year, has resigned from the party. Matondkar told, "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."

Recently, in a letter addressed to the party leadership, Matondkar had criticized the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Sanjay Nirupam, a former Mumbai Congress president, during campaigning. The letter is dated May 16, a week before the Lok Sabha election results were announced, and addressed to Milind Deora, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief.

Milind Deora announced his resignation from the post, taking moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the elections. Milind Deora, a former MP, had succeeded his political bête noire Sanjay Nirupam as the president of Mumbai Congress ahead of the elections.