Mumbai: Actress turned politician Urmila Matondkar who entered politics last year and had a very brief stint with the Indian National Congress party is all set to join the Shiv Sena on 1st December.

While talking to reporters, Shiv Sena leader and spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that Matondkar will formally join Sena on Tuesday, the 1st December in presence of Sena supremo and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at their residence Matoshree.  Raut said that Matondkar was a Shiv Sainik only, and with her induction in the party its Mahila Aghadi will get stronger.

The development is not surprising as it is well known that Matondkar's name has already been forwarded to Governor BS Koshyari by the Shiv Sena for nomination to the Legislative Council from the governor's quota, along with names of 11 others of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Koshyari  is however yet to approve the list of 12 names.

Forty six years old Matondkar had joined the Congress in March 2019 and was given a ticket to contest from Mumbai North constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, but she lost to BJP's heavyweight Gopal Shetty. Six months down the line, in September 2019, she resigned from the party, citing petty internal politics and in-fighting.

Along with her resignation letter, Matondkar had released a statement stating that the key functionaries of Mumbai Congress were either unable or not committed to bring about a change and transformation in the organization for betterment of the party. "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", she had said in her statement.