In another blow to the Congress in Maharashtra, Bollywood actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar on Tuesday resigned from the party. She was associated with the BJP for almost 5 months.

Urmila, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in April from Mumbai, said she was quitting owing to “petty in-house politics” in the party.

“My political and social sensibilities refuse to allow vested interests in the party to use me as a mean to fight petty in-house politics instead of working on a bigger goal in Mumbai Congress,” Urmila said.

The 44-year-old said she will continue to work for people with honesty and dignity as she thanked all those who helped and supported her.

The announcement by Urmila, who had bagged 241,431 votes across six segments of the Mumbai North seat, came as a huge embarrassment for the Congress which is struggling to keep the party united ahead of the Assembly polls.

In a statement issued regarding her decision to quit the party, Matondkar mentioned about her May 16 letter to then Mumbai Congress President Milind Deora in which she had sought action against the aides of senior party leader Sanjay Nirupam for misconduct. Matondkar alleged the party took no action despite her repeated efforts.

“First thought of resignation came to me when after my repeated efforts, no action was taken in pursuance of my letter dated 16th May, addressed to then Mumbai Congress President Mr Milind Deora,” she said in a statement.

In the letter, Matondkar had criticised the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Nirupam. She had also 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.

In a similar development, former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh also announced their resignations from the Congress.

Singh said he was leaving the Congress as he did not agree with the party’s stand on Article 370.