Two descendants of legendary Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Maharashtra. While the BJP on Tuesday fielded Udayanraje Bhosale, 13th descendant of Shivaji Maharaj,
from the Satara Lok Sabha seat, the Congress has already announced the nomination of Shahu Chhatrapati from the Kolhapur seat.
Maharashtra has two royal families with a direct lineage to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - Satara and Kolhapur. The Satara royal family traces its origin to Sambhaji Maharaj, the elder son of Chhatrapati Shivaji, and Kolhapur royal family traces its origins to Rajaram Maharaj, the younger son of Shivaji.
In Kolhapur, Shahu Chhatrapati will be up against sitting MP Sanjay Mandlik of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Mandlik’s father Sadashivrao had defeated Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati (son of Shahu Chhatrapti) in 2009 Lok Sabha election when the royal family scion was NCP candidate, while Mandalik, once close aide of Sharad Pawar, had rebelled and contested as an independent.
In Satara, Udayanraje will be pitted against senior NCP leader and legislator Shashikant Shinde. He had won the Satara seat in 2019 as a candidate of the undivided NCP, but resigned within a few months and joined the BJP. However, in the by-election, Udayanraje lost as a BJP candidate to NCP’s Shrinivas Patil. The BJP later nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in April 2020. His term was to end in 2026.
As the Satara seat was won by NCP, Ajit Pawar faction had staked claim on the seat. Ajit wanted Udayanraje to contest on NCP ticket but the latter was firm that he will contest only on BJP ticket.
Udayanraje said that the situation in the country was favourable for the saffron party and expressed confidence that he would win by a margin of more than two lakh votes.
