Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has met the demand of Udayanraje Bhosale, the direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, to contest Lok Sabha elections from Satara, the former capital of the Maratha Empire. Bhosale is the Rajya Sabha member, yet he chose to be in the field he had won in 2019 general elections, not from the BJP then, but as a member of undivided NCP.

Bhosale had quit NCP ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls and contested a bye-poll against NCP`s Shriniwas Patil. He lost to Patil. The defeat was attributed to Sharad Pawar`s famous speech in the heavy rains. Later, the BJP rehabilitated Bhosale in the upper house. This time, the party took more than a month, after declaring its first list, to announce Bhosale`s nomination on Tuesday. Apparently, the BJP had to convince Ajit Pawar to vacate his claim to the seat for Bhosale, who had refused to be NCP (Ajit)`s candidate.