Satara (Maharashtra), A day after he was trounced in the Lok Sabha bypolls to the prestigious Satara constituency, Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale confidently said he is not ‘finished yet’.
A descendent of the Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Bhosale said in tweets on Friday: “Have lost today, but haven’t stopped. Haven’t won, but not yet finished.”
Defeated by Nationalist Congress Party’s low-profiled bureaucrat-turned- politician and ex-Governor Shriniwas Patil, he also thanked all the voters of his constituency for their support and the party workers for toiling for him.
Bhosale – who was elected as NCP MP in May 2019 – abruptly quit to join the BJP in mid-September and fought the elections again, this time on a BJP ticket.
Considered ‘invincible’ in the constituency which was part of the Maratha kingdom once ruled by his forefathers, Bhosale tasted a stunning defeat in a by-poll at the hands of Patil by a huge margin.
Once his close friend and mentor, NCP President Sharad Pawar had addressed a rally barely four days before the elections in pouring rains in Satara, where he admitted that he had “committed an error by selecting” Bhosale, and urged people to vote for Patil this time and reject the turncoat.
Pawar’s frankness, his simple appeal and the circumstances in which it was made seemed to have struck a chord in the hearts of the people – who overwhelmingly voted for Patil – to ensure Bhosale’s defeat.
Speculation was rife in political circles whether the BJP would now consider inducting Bhosale to the Rajya Sabha to compensate for the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll debacle.
