Mumbai: Actor turned Politician Urmila Matondkar who joined Shiv Sena last month has donated Rs 20 lakh to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund in July 2020. The donation comes from the leftover amount of Rs 50 lakh that the Congress party gave her to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North which she lost to Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Gopal Shetty.

According to the guidelines of the Election Commission, Urmila opened a joint account for election expenses with Congress general secretary Ashok Sutrale at a public sector’s bank branch in Kandivali.

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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.

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, the Bank statement showed.

“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.

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Meanwhile, Matondkar has said that the donation was made with the permission of Maharashtra 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.”

It is also worth mentioning, the Uddhav Thackrey-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state has recommended Matondkar’s name for the state legislative council along with 11 others, to which the governor is still to approve.