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Journalism of Courage
The secret behind the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA alliance not declaring a candidate for the Satara Lok Sabha seat has now turned into a suspense with hoardings of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Udayanraje Bhosale appearing across the constituency.
The Satara Lok Sabha constituency has been a bastion of the NCP led by Sharad Pawar as the party has not lost the seat in the last four elections and even retained it after its then sitting MP Udayanraje Bhosale resigned and contested the seat again on a BJP ticket.
With the NCP and NCP(SP) heading into their first Lok Sabha elections since the split, it was expected that both parties would go into a bitter fight as is the case for the Baramati seat, where sitting MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, is all set to face the challenge posed by Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar.
The NCP(SP) was undecided over its candidate and was considering sitting MP Shriniwas Patil to contest the seat again, but he had instead pushed his son’s name for the ticket, as the party looked for a new face for the seat. The NCP led by Ajit Pawar was unable to get a strong face to contest the seat and even offered BJP Rajya Sabha MP to contest as NCP candidate. Bhosale rejected the offer and insisted on contesting the seat as BJP candidate and was stationed in Delhi for three days to get the party ticket.
Bhosale, who is a descendent of Maratha king Shivaji, seems to have convinced the BJP leadership to get the Satara seat for the party in the seat sharing arrangement. BJP Madha candidate Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar on Tuesday said it was certain the Satara seat will be contested by the BJP and Udayanraje Bhosale will be the candidate.
His statement holds importance as a grand welcome for Bhosale was planned by his supporters in Satara on Wednesday and hoardings with the mention of Bhosale as BJP candidate were put up across the constituency.
It is learnt that the BJP exchanged the seat with NCP and offered Nashik along with Parbhani seat in exchange for the Satara seat. However, the official announcement is expected on March 28 in a joint press conference of three leaders of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP.
The move is also considered to be because Shahu Maharaj, another descendent of Shivaji, is contesting the Lok Sabha as Congress candidate from Kolhapur constituency and it was expected to have created an impact in other Lok Sabha constituencies of the state.
