Bhosale on brink of defeat in Satara Lok Sabha byelection

Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji and two-time NCP MP from Satara in western Maharashtra, appears to be losing his seat in the byelection as the counting was underway on Thursday.

By Thursday evening, Bhosale, who resigned and joined the BJP before the Maharashtra Assembly polls (which necessitated the Lok Sabha byelection), was trailing behind NCP veteran Sriniwas Patil by 80,000 votes.

Bhosale seemed to have played a bizarre gambit when he resigned as MP within months of the April 2018 general elections, a decision which did not go down well with the elctorate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a rally in Satara to campaign for Bhosale.

But in terms of optics, it was NCP chief Sharad Pawar's last rally in Satara, when it rained heavily, which trumped. The visuals of 78-year-old Pawar soaked to the bone in pelting rain but not stopping his speech went viral on social media.

Turning the bypoll into a prestige battle, Pawar persuaded his friend since college days, former Sikkim governor Sriniwas Patil, to jump into the fray against the royal family's scion.

The election did not seem to have gone Bhosale's way. Election officials informed that he was trailing by 80,000 votes, but three or four rounds of counting were still left.