Urmila Matondkar donates Rs 20 lakh from Congress poll money to CM’s relief fund

Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar has donated Rs 20 lakh to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund from what was left of the Rs 50 lakh fund she received from Maharashtra Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Urmila Matondkar joined the Shiv Sena last month after she quit Congress sometime ago. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Urmila Matondkar was the Congress candidate from Mumbai North who lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty.

As per the Election Commission of India guidelines, Urmila Matondkar had opened a joint account for the election expenses in a public sector bank’s Kandivali branch. Congress general secretary Ashok Sutrale was the joint account holder.

As per the ECI norms, there was a cap of Rs 70 lakh on the expenditure by each candidate. Maharashtra Congress transferred Rs 50 lakh into this account in April 2019.

As per the account statement, around Rs 30 lakh was used during the election season in 2019 and Rs 20.4 lakh was still left in the account till July 2020 as balance. In July, Rs 20 lakh from the same account was donated by Urmila Matondkar to Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

“Money is given to the candidate to fight elections. That money belongs to the party. If at all any money is left, it should be returned to the party. As per normal practice, the same should have happened in this case,” said MPCC treasurer Suresh Shetty.

Urmila Matondkar said the donation was made with permission of the state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat. “This donation was made with the permission of MPCC president Thorat Saab towards MVA government in the middle of the lockdown towards Covid-19 work. Some notorious people trying to a make story out of it. I have used it towards the welfare of people of Maharashtra in the pandemic,” Matondkar said.

MPCC chief Thorat said, “During one of the discussions she had informed me that she had donated the amount to the CM’s fund.”

The Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government recently recommended Urmila Matondkar’s name for nomination to state legislative council from the governor’s quota along with other 11 members. The governor is yet to approve the list of 12 members.