Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar will join the Shiv Sena on December 1, a party functionary told PTI. She had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate and quit the party later. On November 29, Harshal Pradhan, a close aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, said that Matondkar will join the party in the CM’s presence. The 46-year-old actor’s name has been forwarded to Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari by the Shiv Sena for nomination to the Legislative Council from the governor's quota. Urmila Matondkar had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Mumbai North constituency as a Congress candidate. While she lost the election by a huge margin to sitting MP Gopal Shetty, Matondkar grabbed eyeballs with her campaign. However, in September 2019, she quit the party over the functioning of Congress' Mumbai unit, citing “petty in-house politics”. Recently, she had criticised actor Kangana Ranaut for comparing Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and on the nepotism issue.

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