MAHARASHTRA
It is 12pm and unbearably hot at Rahimatpur. Udayanraje Bhonsle, the 13th descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji and the BJP candidate in the Satara Lok Sabha constituency, is fashionably late for an election meeting that was scheduled at 10am.
People are standing in the scorching sun even though sitting arrangements have been made in the big hall where the meeting is supposed to take place, as they want to welcome ‘Maharaj’. Bhonsle arrives in a black Toyota Fortuner with a fancy number plate—007—and a convoy behind it. Dressed in stiff white kurta and pyjama, he gets out of the vehicle and raises the collar in his trademark style, as people line up to touch his feet.
“Udayan Maharaj is popular in Satara,” says Sandeep Mane, a farmer. “He should win this time.” But Satara has always been loyal to Sharad Pawar. “Pawar always made sure that farmers don’t get the money. He chose sugar cooperatives and sugar barons over farmers. During the MVA rule, only 200 people got aid from the state government. After Eknath Shinde came to power, he gave aid to more than 2,000 farmers here,” said Mane.
The BJP-led NDA holds four of six assembly constituencies in Satara; the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi holds two. The MVA candidate is Shashikant Shinde of the NCP (SCP). He is no match in influence or reputation for the incumbent Shriniwas Patil, who beat Bhonsle in 2019. A college friend of Sharad Pawar, Patil was a civil servant and governor of Sikkim. But he is not contesting because of health reasons.
The clout of Pawar in this part of Maharashtra is indisputable. His rallies for Shinde have been well attended. The sympathy for Pawar, after his nephew Ajit split the party with 40 legislators to join the saffron alliance government, is palpable, and that might be Bhonsle’s biggest challenge.
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Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the 12th descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, is a distant relative of Bhonsle, but the Kolhapur royal is in the opposition camp. He is the Congress candidate from the Kolhapur Lok Sabha constituency against the incumbent, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Mandlik.
The soft-spoken royal is a respected figure in Kolhapur. This is his first election. Apparently, it was Pawar who convinced him to contest, but he had one condition—he would contest only on a Congress ticket. Kolhapur was originally given to the Shiv Sena (UBT) and it swapped the seat for Sangli with the Congress to make way for the Shahu Maharaj.
Shriram Pawar, executive editor of Sakal group of newspapers, says Shahu Maharaj enjoys a strong support in Karveer, Kolhapur and Radhanagari assembly constituencies. Mandlik enjoys strong support in Kagal, Gadhinglaj-Ajra and Chandgad constituencies. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde camped in Kolhapur for three days for campaigning.
It is not an easy fight for Shahu Chhatrapati. A political analyst says heavyweight leaders from the district like minister Hasan Mushrif and Samarjeet Ghatge are on Sanjay Mandlik’s side. On the other hand, former home minister Satej Patil is the only heavyweight with Shahu Maharaj.