Sharad Pawar’s Rain-Soaked Speech Drowns Turncoat Udayanraje Bhosale, Shivaji Descendant, in Satara

Mumbai: For reasons galore, the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll in Maharashtra was a prestige battle between the BJP and the NCP. As early trends suggest, this fight is clearly going in favour of the latter.Check Maharashtra election results live here.

NCP's Shriniwas Patil, a long-time friend of party chief Sharad Pawar, won from Satara, polling 6,36,620 votes, defeating BJP candidate Udayanraje Bhosale who secured 5,48,903 votes.

Both parties picked from where they left off in the May Lok Sabha elections and traded bitter and personal attacks during campaigning for the bypoll. Last week, in the final lap of campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chided Pawar for “not having the courage” to fight the parliamentary bypoll from Satara.

The BJP had fielded its much publicised NCP-turncoat and Shivaji Maharaj's descendant Bhosale from the same seat where the NCP had fielded him in general elections. The bypoll was necessitated after Bhosale jumped ship to the BJP.

Bhosale had joined the BJP in the presence of party bigwigs like PM Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. All three had campaigned for him and repeatedly invoked the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Bhosale was only one of dozens of NCP leaders who had switched over to the BJP, but it was his switch that was invoked most often during the campaign season to suggest the political bankruptcy in the NCP.

All that seemingly changed when Sharad Pawar delivered his iconic speech in heavy downpour on the last day of campaigning on October 19.

Even as other leaders were seen trying to shield themselves from rain, the veteran politician continued his address to the crowd. "The rain god has blessed the NCP for the October 21 election. And with the blessings of the rain god, Satara district will create a miracle in Maharashtra,” he told the gathering.

Pawar acknowledged his “mistake” of picking Bhosale as the Satara candidate in May elections. "When one makes a mistake, one should admit it. I made a mistake while selecting candidate for the Lok Sabha poll. I accept this publicly. But I am happy that to correct the mistake, every young and old person in Satara is waiting for October 21," he had said.