Campaign Confusion in Maval: Banners for Satara’s Udayanraje Bhosale Seen in Pimpri Chinchwad

Reported By Varad Bhatkhande

Pimpri Chinchwad, 30th May 2024: The results for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be announced on 4th June, just five days from now. Across the country, enthusiastic activists are putting up banners for their candidates in their respective constituencies. However, something unusual has happened in Pimpri Chinchwad, which is part of the Maval Lok Sabha constituency.

Here, Mahayuti candidate and sitting MP Shrirang Barne is competing against Mahavikas Aghadi candidate and former PCMC mayor Sanjog Waghere. Strangely, banners claiming the victory of Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, the Mahayuti candidate from the Satara Lok Sabha constituency, have appeared in the city.

These banners were spotted in Khandoba Mal Chowk of Akurdi. Although banners supporting Shrirang Barne of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) were also present, people were surprised to see Udayanraje Bhosale’s posters in Pimpri Chinchwad. In Satara, Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP, is facing off against former NCP minister Shashikant Shinde.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have campaigned for Bhosale. He has previously served three terms as MP of Satara, with the third term being incomplete as he resigned from the NCP and lost a subsequent by-election, but later secured a term in the Rajya Sabha. A close contest is anticipated between Bhosale and Shinde, with results expected to be very close on June 4th.

Satara’s Recent Lok Sabha History

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Udayanraje, then with NCP, won the seat with a margin of 1,26,528 votes, securing 5,79,026 votes (52%) against Shiv Sena’s Narendra Patil, who got 4,52,498 votes (40.48%). Udayanraje had also won this seat in the 2014 elections with 5,22,531 votes (53.50%). However, he was defeated by NCP’s Shrinivas Patil in a 2019 by-election, where Shrinivas received 636,620 votes compared to Udayanraje’s 548,903 votes.

Shrirang Barne’s Concern

Previously, posters in parts of Pimpri Chinchwad featured Narendra Modi’s photo but omitted Shrirang Barne’s, sparking criticism from the opposition. Barne is often accused of riding the Modi wave to get elected twice rather than on his own merits as an MP in Maval. Now, the appearance of Udayanraje’s poster in Pimpri Chinchwad has added another point of contention for Barne.