Only have party's best interest in mind: Urmila Matondkar on letter which exposed Congress' flaws

Urmila Matondkar has defended a letter dated May 16 that she had written to senior Congress leader Milind Deora in which serious allegations were made against party functionaries for their 'misconduct' during her campaigning for Lok Sabha election 2019. The actress-turned-politician said in a press statement on Tuesday that she only has the best interest of Congress at heart.

In the letter to Deora, Urmila had accused Congress' Sandesh Kondwilkar and Bhushan Patil of having mismanaged her campaign during the election. She had also accused Kondwilkar of claiming that there was a lack of funds, of calling her family members at odd hours and asking them to raise money and of not organising her rallies and other poll-related functions properly. In her press statement, she said that the letter was written with honest intentions. "There are issues to be sorted in every party. I’ve joined Congress with no personal interest or agenda except to serve my country," she said. "I’ve addressed the letter at the behest of the Mumbai President (Deora has since resigned as Congress' Mumbai chief) with sole intention to bring about betterment in the party."

The letter was written well after Mumbai had voted - on April 29, but before the seventh phase of voting in Lok Sabha election 2019. "I wish to highlight that this letter was written way before the election results or even the exit polls. This shows my integrity, sincerity and commitment to party interest," said the 45-year-old.

Urmila had made her political debut on March 27 and was named as Congress' candidate from Mumbai North. She would lose by a mammoth margin of over 4.5 lakh votes against Gopal Shetty, the sitting BJP MP.