Battle royale: In Maharashtra sugar heartland, BJP looks to storm Pawar Senior's fort

PUNE/KOLHAPUR: Even before the actual battle began, Udayanraje Bhonsle had to fight hard to convince the BJP brass in Delhi to declare his candidature from Satara, a bastion of the undivided NCP since 1999. This was despite him being a three-time MP-but on NCP tickets-from western Maharashtra's sugar heartland and also his status as the 13th descendant of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
As the saffron party dilly-dallied, he grew impatient and hit the campaign ground running.And when the other Mahayuti partners-NCP and Shiv Sena-stayed away from his rallies, he appeared unfazed. By the time BJP gave its stamp of approval, overriding its allies' concerns, it was a sheer formality for Bhonsle to make the announcement.

With Satara voting on May 7, consolidating the force with allies' MLAs will be a daunting task for Bhonsle. "His rapport with them is not great. His cousin, Satara MLA Shivendra, is known as an 'old foe'," a senior BJP politician said.
His problems don't end there. The former royal figure, known for his flamboyant behaviour, has to answer some unpleasant questions over development projects. "Satara has not got any big-ticket projects in the last two decades. Some companies even shifted their operations to other districts. Youths do not get jobs. Why can't he do something concrete to change this scenario?" asked Sagar Jadhav, an engineering graduate.
To take him on, NCP (SP) has fielded Shashikant Shinde, a calm and non-controversial leader. Shinde won from the Jaoli assembly segment twice. After delimitation, he managed to emerge victorious in the newly formed Koregaon assembly segment in 2009 and 2014. He was the water resources minister in the Congress-NCP govt in 2013. After being elected to the assembly four times in a row, he lost to Mahesh Shinde of undivided Sena in 2019. An MLC since 2020, Shinde has a strong hold on Mathadi workers from Satara, most of whom live near the APMC market in Navi Mumbai. But, he will have to work hard as Narendra Patil, BJP's Satara president, also enjoys considerable clout among the workers.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar fielded Bhonsle for the first time in the 2009 LS polls. Bhonsle won by over 3 lakh votes and repeated the show in 2014. In 2019, his popularity waned, but he managed to win again. That same year, ahead of the state polls, he resigned as an MP and aligned himself with BJP. In the LS bypoll, he was defeated by NCP's Shriniwas Patil. He was then nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Satara had been under the influence of the late Congress leader Yashwantrao Chavan since the 1950s, barring when Hindurao Naik Nimbalkar from Sena won in 1996. After Sharad Pawar broke away from Congress and formed NCP in 1999, it became his party's strong base.