Urmila, Kripashankar quit Congress ahead of polls

Mumbai : Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar and former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh on Tuesday announced their resignations from the Congress.

Urmila, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in April from Mumbai, said she was quitting owing to "petty in-house politics" in the party.

Singh said he was leaving the Congress, as he did not agree with party's stand to oppose abrogation of Article 370. The resignations are a setback to the Congress, which has already seen exit of many functionaries ahead of the next month's Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The announcement by Matondkar, who had bagged 2,41,431 votes across six segments of the Mumbai North seat, came as a huge embarrassment for the Congress which is struggling to keep its flock together ahead of the Assembly polls.

Matondkar, who joined the Congress in March this year, was defeated by BJP stalwart Gopal Shetty in the polls.

In a statement, Matondkar observed the key functionaries of the Mumbai Congress are either unable to or are not committed to transform the party.

"I have resigned from the Indian National Congress. 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 said.