Shiv Sena to nominate Urmila to Maharashtra Legislative Council

Almost a year after resigning from the Congress, actor Urmila Matondkar is all set to be Shiv Sena’s nominee to the Maharashtra Legislative Council.

Reports quoting Sena’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has spoken to Urmila and she has given her consent in this regard.

Urmila, 46, will be among 12 candidates recommended by the state government and nominated by the Maharashtra Governor to the state legislature’s upper house.

The actor’s nomination comes almost a year after she called it quits with the Congress, citing “petty in-house politics” the reason for her exit. She had joined politics just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and contested as a Congress candidate from Mumbai North constituency.

While it was earlier speculated that the actor would be fielded as a Congress candidate, she reportedly was not keen on the proposal due to her differences with certain leaders in Mumbai Congress.

Urmila was last seen taking a swipe at actor Kangana Ranaut over the latter’s ‘PoK’ remark. The comment had riled up the Shiv Sena and sparked a war of words between its spokesperson Raut and Kangana.

Urmila in an interview to a news channel had asked Kangana to look at the drug menace in her home state Himachal Pradesh, before calling Maharashtra PoK over the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

Kangana, in a rebuttal, had dismissed her by calling her a “soft porn star,” much to the chagrin of fans.

Urmila, however, had retained her composure and had thanked fans for standing by her.

“Thank you the ‘Real People of India’ and a rare breed of unbiased, dignified media for standing by me. It’s your victory over fake IT trolls n propaganda. Deeply touched…humbled,” she had tweeted.

Reports say the maturity with which she handled the crass remarks of Kangana, is what inspired the Sena to field her.

“She is an actor and has a good social connect. She might have lost the Lok Sabha elections, but had won hearts of many through her political maturity, knowledge of the field and awareness about people’s problems. She recently proved that again,” Raut said.