Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar on Tuesday added a glamour quotient to the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra on Tuesday, as she joined the party by saying that she was a “Marathi mulgi (girl)”, that she was a Hindu by “birth”, “dharma as well as karma”, that she was a “people-made” star and she she would like to be “people-made” leader.
A month after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray recommended to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to nominate her as as one of the 12 members in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, a “grateful” Matondkar joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Uddhav, his wife Rashmi, minister-son Aditya Thackeray and a host of Sena leader at the Thackerays’ Bandra residence “Matoshri”. Rashmi Thackeray tied the yesteryear actress “Shiv-Bandhan”, a symbolic gesture marking her entry to the Shiv Sena.
“Ahead my decision to join the Shiv Sena, the chief minister called me that keeping the traditions of Maharashtra, he had decided to recommend me for nomination to the Council to enhance the cultural and social standards of the Upper House. I consider myself lucky that chief minister Uddhaqv Thackerqay considered me for this honour,” 46-year-old Matondkar said, as she joined the Shiv Sena.
A media-savvy Matondkar made all the right noises, as she said: “I am a Mulgi coming from a Marathi family. I am a Hindu by ‘janma’ (birth) and I am Hindu by “Dharma” (religion) and “Karma” (deed).. Being secular does not mean that you hate another religion.. I have tremendous respect for the late Balasaheb Thackeray. Shiv Sena is a ‘Hindutva’ party. Hindutva implies it is all-inclusive, without any discrimination. I don’t need to speak how much I believe in ‘Hindutva’, it’s a personal matter,” Matondkar said.
Matondkar -- who quit the Congress in September last year (less than five months after she joined the party) after she contested unsuccessfully the Lok Sabha elections later from Mumbai north constituency – said: “”I still have deep respect for (Congress President) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi…I have contested the elections from Mumbai North but I lost. In my resignation letter, I had specified the reasons for quitting the Congress”
“Let me make it clear that though I quit the Congress, I never left politics…I am a Marathi and once I have taken a step, there is no going back,”
Matondkar, who had crossed swords with controversial actress Kangana Ranaut for the latter’s comment likening Mumbai to PoK and said she would “never tolerate any defamatory remark” about the metropolis, had an indirect dig at Kangana when she said: “I am a people-made star, not a media-made star… I am +sure I would like to be a ‘people-made’ leader”.
Matondkar heaped praise on Uddhav and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for doing tremendous work in fighting the Coronavirus crisis and also dealing with the natural calamities. “While in the Shiv Sena, I will work like a Shiv Sainik,” she said.
Throwing herlot with Bollywood which is flak from various quarters for its links with the drug mafia, Matondkar said: “Bollywood needs to stand up and speak. People like us can and will help. It's not just the stars who make Bollywood… there’s huge investment of crores of rupees there.”
Apart from Uddhav, his wife Rashmi and son Aditya, the others who were present when she joined the Shiv Sena were Sena Ministers Subhash Desai, MPs Anil Desai and Priyanka Chaturvedi, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar and the Siddhi Vinayak Temple Trust Chairman and Marathi actor Aadesh Bandekar.
After she joined the Sena, Martondkar bowed with folded hands and paid her respects before a wall-portrait of late and founder of Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray and his wife Meenatai Thackeray, at Thackerays’ residence ‘Matoshri’. Urmila’s nomination to the State Legislative Council from the Governor’s quota has become a mere formality.