Mumbai: The inner-party spat between Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam took an ugly turn on Tuesday when Deora allegedly leaked a confidential letter written to him by actress Urmila Matondkar. In the nine-page letter to then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora, dated May 16, Matondkar had stated, "Personal ego issues and complete lack of political maturity displayed by certain key party functionaries of Mumbai North constituency and Mumbai Congress have created an atmosphere of distrust and confusion in the entire political campaign.’’ The actress, who had decided to lie low after the Lok Sabha election, clearly miffed over the leak of a personal and confidential communication, took on Deora and claimed that it was the latter who had asked her to write such a letter.
Result: the entire episode has boomeranged on Deora who was trying to corner Nirupam. “It's extremely unfortunate that a confidential letter containing privileged communication was made public. I have addressed this letter at the behest of the Mumbai President with the sole intention of bringing about improvement in the party," Matondkar said in a statement. She is currently abroad. The letter is dated May 16, a week before the Lok Sabha election results were announced and addressed to and Deora, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief.
(Incidentally, Deora announced his resignation from the post on Sunday, taking moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the elections.) In the letter, Matondkar had criticised the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Nirupam, a former Mumbai Congress president. "Sandesh Kondwilkar, who was appointed chief co-ordinator of the entire campaign, intentionally failed and neglected to mobilise party workers at the grass-root level. Other key functionaries such as Bhushan Patil failed to hold meetings between key functionaries of the party at block level and ward level which resulted in complete failure of communication," read the letter which has now surfaced on social media.
