In the countdown to the Lok Sabha 2019 poll, there is much speculation over which Bollywood star will yield to political pressure and agree to contest the elections on a party ticket and who will only just campaign for a party’s poll candidates. In earlier elections, it was not uncommon to find major film stars aligning with either the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or Congress and bringing starry value to their poll campaigns. But that’s no longer a trend. Therefore, it was surprising for PeepingMoon.com to learn that Rangeela girl Urmila Matondkar is most likely to join the Congress Party and contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai. According to sources, Urmila will most probably be fielded by the party as its candidate from the Mumbai North constituency. In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP’s Gopal Shetty won from this constituency over the Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam by a handsome margin. Since Shetty appears to be a certain winner from this constituency again, the Congress is determined to give the BJP a tough fight here and is seriously considering Urmila as its candidate.
The Mumbai North constituency has always thrown up exciting contests in the Lok Sabha elections. This was a BJP stronghold from 1989 and 1999 with Ram Naik being the sitting MP until he lost the seat to Bollywood superstar Govinda who contested the 2004 polls on a Congress ticket. In 2009, the Congress fielded Nirupam from Mumbai North and won the seat again until the BJP and Shetty snatched it back in 2014. Now political pundits are waiting for confirmation that the Congress will push Urmila into the fray from Mumbai North and are keen to see what sort of competition the yesteryear Bollywood hottie will offer the BJP’s sitting candidate.
