Pawar’s Man Friday In Satara Not To Contest, Replacement A Challenge

NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s long-time confidant Shrinivas Patil has created a vexing situation for his mentor by declaring his inability to contest the coming Lok Sabha election from the prestigious Satara constituency — the rich sugar belt — in Maharashtra. While the ruling Mahayuti is zeroing on the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja’s family scion Udayan Raje Bhosale, currently a Rajya Sabha member, Pawar was reassured about fielding Shrinivas and about the latter’s re-election from the constituency, the stronghold of the NCP. A former IAS officer, Shrinivas is 83 now. In fact, when he was asked to contest in a byelection in October 2019, he was reluctant due to his advancing years. However, he bowed to Pawar’s entreaty and won the seat by defeating Udayan Raje. Now that he has shown unwillingness, Pawar will have to look for a replacement which will be formidable enough to take on the royal opponent, who was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier from Satara. A Congress citadel for many decades, Satara district has shown its preference tilting towards the BJP in recent years. Pawar sees this constituency as a prestige issue and has left no stones unturned to retain his hold on it. But after the rebellion by nephew Ajit, the NCP supremo is finding it challenging to keep his horde under control. He is expected to announce the name of his nominee by Sunday.