Won’t contest Satara bypoll if NCP fields Pawar: Udayanraje

Ex-MP says he still has great respect for his former party chief

Changing colours: Udayanraje Bhosale joined the BJP earlier this month.

Former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP from Satara Udayanraje Bhosale, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said he would refrain from contesting the Satara Lok Sabha by-election if NCP chief Sharad Pawar stood against him.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Tuesday that the by-election to the Satara Lok Sabha constituency, necessitated by Mr. Bhosale’s resignation, will be held on October 21, the same day as the Assembly polls. The votes will be counted on October 24.

Speaking in Satara soon after the announcement, Mr. Bhosale, who was only one of the four elected NCP MPs in the general elections, said he still has great respect for Mr. Pawar and would not fill the nomination form if the NCP fielded Mr. Pawar against him.

“He was, is and will forever remain a respected and much beloved leader … I think of my father and then I think of Mr. Pawar,” Mr. Bhosale said in an emotional response when asked how he felt about Mr. Pawar taking jibes at his entry in the BJP.

The ECI’s announcement comes as a relief to Mr. Bhosale, who had hoped that the Satara bypoll would be conducted along with the Assembly election.

Mr. Bhosale’s defection to the BJP is expected to bolster the saffron party’s standing with the Maratha community besides dealing another jolt to the beleaguered NCP in western Maharashtra. Since then, the NCP has been scrambling to find a strong candidate against Mr. Bhosale, who won his third consecutive Lok Sabha election in April.

Among the names doing the rounds are that of senior NCP leader and former Sikkim governor Shriniwas Patil. A former IAS officer, Mr. Patil contested and won the Lok Sabha elections twice, in 1999 and 2004, from the Karad constituency in Satara before its delimitation for the 2009 polls.

The name of Mr. Patil’s son, Sarang, too has been floated by a section of the NCP leadership. Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s name was also doing the rounds, before the MLA made it clear that he is interested in contesting only from the Karad Assembly seat.