NCP's Shrinivas Patil win in Satara Lok Sabha bypolls after defeating BJP's Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13th descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, has put an end to an extraordinary fight that featured touching visuals of a drenched Sharad Pawar addressing a rally amidst heavy rainfall.
Bhosale had switched over to the BJP after winning the Lok Sabha polls and this was seen as a setback for the NCP supremo. Thus, winning the Satara seat was a matter of prestige for Pawar and for him, bureaucrat-turned-politican and personal friend Shrinivas Patil, a former Sikkim governor, did the honours.
Popularly known as Dadasaheb, Patil is a two-time MP from Karad before the delimitation exercise. Parts of Karad seat went to Sangli and Satara during delimitation. Before Patil, the Karad seat was represented three times by Chavan and before that twice by his mother Premlatai Chavan.
Patil defeated Udyanraje by a margin of nearly 83,000 votes. Udayanraje is very popular in Satara and in 2019 Lok Sabha polls to give him a challenge, the Shiv Sena fielded Narendra Patil, a former NCP MLC, and Mathadi leader.
Bhosale's move to leave the NCP at a time when his mentor Pawar was in deep trouble vis-a-vis the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam and the exodus of leaders from the opposition camp has not got down well among the public.
"We respect Satara as it was the seat of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj....we won the elections, but, immediately left, in just four months. It did not go down well among the people," Pawar said.
Satara, a traditional Congress bastion, has been with the NCP for five terms - 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. While in 1999 and 2004, it was won by Laxman Pandurang Jadhav, the rest three terms it was Udayanraje holding the fort.
Former deputy prime minister Yashwantrao Chavan held the seat for four terms — 1967, 1971, 1977 and 1980 — while former MPCC president Prataprao Bhosale also held the seat for four terms — 1980, 1989, 1989 and 1991. Shiv Sena's Hindurao Naik Nimbalkar won the seat in 1996. Patil is a two-time MP from Karad seat.