Urmila Matondkar likely to contest Mumbai seat

Mumbai: Bollywood film actress Urmila Matondkar is likely to be fielded by Congress from the Mumbai North seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The Rangeela actress has been offered a ticket by Congress to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sitting member of Parliament, Gopal Shetty, said sources.

According to party insiders, Ms Matondkar is exp-ected to join the Congress in the next couple of days after which the party will announce her name as its nominee for the Mumbai North seat.

For the Congress, Mumbai North, which has predominantly been a BJP and Shiv Sena stronghold, has always proved a tough constituency. Hence it was looking for a strong candidate to fight a tough rival like Mr Shetty, who had defeated the then-sitting MP Sanjay Nirupam by more than 4,46,000 votes in 2014.

Actresses like Asawari Joshi and Shilpa Shinde had also asked for a Congress ticket from the Mumbai North constituency, but the party didn’t consider their demands.

After the crushing defeat in 2014, Mr Nirupam has been trying to shift himself to the neighbouring Mumbai North West constituency, where he has a strong base.

Despite opposition from other party leaders, his name has been finalised by the party high command, said sources.

If Ms Matondkar is given a ticket, she will be the second Bollywood personality to contest the Mumbai North seat. Earlier, Congress had fielded Govinda, who defeated senior BJP MP Ram Naik in 2004. Mr Naik, who is now the Uttar Pradesh governor, had represented this constituency five times consecutively.

In 2004, Govinda trounced Mr Naik by over 50,000 votes. However, in 2009, Mumbai North was split in half after delimitation. Made up now of only the city’s northern suburbs, it proved unlucky again for Mr Naik.

As an Maharashtra Navnirman Sena candidate polled 1.5 lakh votes, Mr Nirupam defeated Mr Naik by just 5,770 votes.