Lok Sabha Elections 2019: In Satara, it’s the collar flick vs moustache twirl

If there’s any one constituency in the state where the poll battle is all about personality-cult politics, then it would be the erstwhile seat of the Maratha empire, Satara.

“Once I have made a commitment, then I don’t even listen to myself,’’ says Udyanraje Bhosale, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP and candidate from Satara, flicking his collar before he ends his speech in a majority of his campaign meetings this poll season.

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This famous Salman Khan dialogue, delivered in halting Hindi, has been Bhosale’s trademark ahead of the polls, as is the collar flick.

As Satara goes to polls on Tuesday, voters may well have to choose between the flick or the moustache twirl, popularised by his opponent and Shiv Sena candidate, Narendra Patil.

If there’s any one constituency in the state where the poll battle is all about personality-cult politics, then it would be the erstwhile seat of the Maratha empire, Satara.

Here, Bhosale, the NCP MP and 13th descendent of warrior king Shivaji, is pitted against Sena’s Patil, leader of headloaders or the Mathadi kamgars.

While there are eight other candidates in the fray, including one from the Bahujan Samaj Party and one from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, there is little doubt that the main contest is between the NCP’s royal and the Sena’s workers leader.

Clash of personalities ?

Bhosale, a controversial politician who has shifted allegiances from BJP to Congress and NCP, is known for his brash behaviour. His election affidavit lists out at least 10 criminal cases that were registered against him, including vandalism of public property, unlawful assembly, threatening public officials although he has not been convicted or found guilty in any of these cases.

Despite this, in his hometown of Satara, he continues to be a popular royal, who is seen as a new-age Robin Hood.

“In Satara, there is only Maharaj ( Bhosale), no Modi. If you go to him with a complaint, you will never return empty handed,” said Sanjay Charule, a college student and a waiter at a hotel in Satara city.

During the Modi wave in the last Lok Sabha polls, Bhosale managed to win the seat with a margin of nearly 3.70 lakh votes, among the largest margins in the state.

Patil, his opponent, however, said that Bhosale had just been lucky as no strong candidate had been put up against him in the last election.

Patil’s campaign plank is centred around ending ‘goonda raj’ of his opponent and highlighting his failure in taking the development agenda forward.

“He won the last two terms because no strong candidate was put up against him. People are fed up of his terror. Despite water availability and good connections, Satara has not seen any industrial development. Our tourism infrastructure is sub-par, despite having a world-class hill station like Mahabaleshwar,” said Patil.

Bhosale rebutted that what is perceived as terror is because he cannot tolerate any injustice against his people and will not shy away from taking action.

“It’s the BJP government that has failed to do any development for the common man or the farmer for the last five years. And, the opposition shamelessly questions what I have done,” said Bhosale.

Patil, a former NCP leader, who joined BJP last year, was loaned to the Sena as the Satara constituency was with the latter.

Backed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Patil brings his own legacy to the poll battle.

He is the son of Annasaheb Patil, one of the foremost Maratha leaders from the region, who raised the issue of reservation for the community and built a strong union of labourers working in various wholesale markets of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. His followers say he committed suicide in 1982 for the issue of Maratha reservation.

In a constituency dominated by the Maratha community, this could well be Patil’s trump card.

The other advantage is that Patil has gained acceptance and a following among mathadi workers, who form a significant population here.

However, majority of these labourers work in Navi Mumbai and getting them back to the constituency for voting is not an easy task.

While development is an important issue in this semi-urban constituency, the poll battle has been largely hijacked by the sabre rattling between these two contestants.

“The young voter is very much taken in by Bhosale. He is popular, although he may not have delivered much in these five years. The only drawback for Bhosale is that NCP MLAs don’t like him and may or may not support him, although party chief Sharad Pawar has cracked the whip and asked them to work together,” said a senior political analyst and editor of a vernacular paper from the region, who did not want to be named.