Actress-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who recently resigned from the Congress party, seems to be cosying up to the Shiv Sena. According to sources, she met Milind Narvekar, who is the personal assistant of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

The meeting between the actress and Thackeray’s PA has triggered speculations in the political arena in Maharashtra. Urmila, however,dismissed speculations of her joining the Shiv Sena, calling it a “courtesy meeting”.It assumes significance as Maharashtra Assembly elections are likely to be held later in 2019.

Earlier this month, Urmila had quit the Congress citing“petty politics” in the Mumbai unit of the grand old party.Justifying her decision to quit the party, the actress had issued a statement, saying her“sensibilities refuse to allow vested interests in the party to use” her “as a means to fight petty in-house politics”.

In a letter addressed to Milind Deora, Urmila had accused Congress' Sandesh Kondwilkar and Bhushan Patil of having mismanaged her campaign during the election. She had also accused Kondwilkar of claiming thatthere was a lack of funds, of calling her family members at odd hours andasking them to raise money and of not organising her rallies and otherpoll-related functions properly.Justifying her decision, Urmila said that she“only had party’s best interest in mind”. Her resignation led to war of wordswithin the Congress, with leaders like Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam trading charges.

Urmila had contested the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai north constituency on Congress ticket.

Notably, another member of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi, recently quit the grand old party and joined the Shiv Sena in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections 2019. She had joined the saffron party a dayafter going with her resentment against Congress' decision to reinstate leaders who “misbehaved” with her.