Urmila Matondkar was the Congress candidate from Mumbai North in the national election.

Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who quit the Congress last week barely five months after she joined the party ahead of the national election, today said she is not joining any other party.

"I am not joining any other party so it's a kind request to the media to kindly not share whatever they hear. It is unfair towards me to say the least and also not appropriate towards any party," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ms Matondkar's clarification comes amid reports that she was in touch with Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar who is the party chief Uddhav Thackeray's personal assistant.

The speculation of her joining the Sena - the cantankerous ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra and at the centre - comes before the Maharashtra election next month.

In her resignation statement, Ms Matondkar, who unsuccessfully contested the Mumbai North seat against the BJP's Gopal Shetty in the national election, had cited "petty in-house politics" as her reason for quitting the Congress.

Urmila Matondkar had expressed concern over "an act of blatant betrayal" in connection with a letter sent to Milind Deora, who quit the post of the state party chief recently. She had then said that she stood by her "thoughts and ideologies" and will continue to work for the people.

In her letter to Mr Deora in May, a week before the Lok Sabha election results were announced, Ms Matondkar had criticised the conduct of two local leaders, who, she said, were "lacking political maturity, discipline" were creating controversies.

A day after Ms Matondkar's exit, the Maharashtra Congress faced another setback with two more leaders - Kripashankar Singh and Harshvardhan Patil - putting in their papers.