Maharashtra polls: It's tight, but there's no rebel and I will win, says Prithviraj Chavan on Karad South seat
Karad South has only had three MLAs representing it — Yashwantrao Mohite from 1952 to 1980, Vilas Patil from 1980 to 2014 and from 2014 to 2019, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress.
The constituency has been known as a Congress bastion for several decades which the BJP hopes to change this time. BJP's candidate is Atul Bhosle, who is not a novice in the constituency. Bhosle, whose family runs a sugar factory and a medical college, has contested twice against Chavan since 2014. While Bhosle lost both times, the BJP and Bhosle have been taking confidence from Chavan's declining winning margins and Bhosle's improved performance.
In 2014, Chavan got 76,831 votes and won by just 16,000 votes, Bhosle came a distant third. The 2014 elections were interesting as Vilas Patil, the Congress sitting MLA, was denied a ticket in favour of Chavan. The latter contested as an independent and got 60,000 votes.
In the 2019 election, Chavan got 92,000 votes but won by just around 9,000 votes as Bhosle got 83,000 votes. The diminishing margin is an issue of worry for Chavan, which is what makes everyone believe that this is going to be a tight contest, something that Chavan himself admits. «Yes, this is a tight contest. But one has to remember that in 2014 there was a rebel candidate — Vilas Patil — who contested. In 2019, his son Udaysinh contested the polls. Udaysinh Patil is now supporting me. So, the Congress votes will not get divided this time. Besides this, the constituency has never been
