Matondkar had unsuccessfully contested her maiden Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North constituency. (File photo) Matondkar had unsuccessfully contested her maiden Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North constituency. (File photo)

A letter written by actress-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar criticising trusted aides of her senior colleague Sanjay Nirupam that surfaced on Tuesday has triggered a war of words in the state unit of the party.

The letter, dated May 16, was addressed to then Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora. Deora announced his resignation from the post on Sunday.

In the letter, Matondkar had criticised the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Nirupam. Matondkar highlighted the failure of the party leadership on coordination at the local level, mobilising workers at grassroots and failure to provide proper resources to her by the two campaign coordinators.

She accused Kondvilkar and Patil of showing a “total lack of coordination, honesty and efficiency, ensuring a disastrous outcome” and sought disciplinary action against the duo.

She accused Kondvilkar of demanding money from her family members to fund her campaign. He also asked them to talk to Congress’ treasurer Ahmed Patel for release of the funds, she claimed in the letter.

Hours after the letter surfaced, Matondkar, who had unsuccessfully contested her maiden Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North constituency, termed the “leak” unfortunate.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that a confidential letter containing privileged communication was made public,” Matondkar said in a statement.

Matondkar said she had joined Congress with no personal agenda but to serve the nation. “I had addressed this letter to the Mumbai Congress president with the sole intention to bring about betterment in the party. It is extremely significant to note that this letter was written way before the election results were announced and even before the exit polls,” she said.

Soon after the letter became public, Nirupam hit out at Deora and accused him of leaking the copies of the letter by Matondkar.

“Young leader who desires to stabilise party at the national level has released copies of complaint letter of an LS candidate to media houses to publish it. It was addressed to him against party workers after the election. Is this the way he is going to adopt to stabilise the party,” he tweeted.

(With PTI inputs)

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