On Saturday, NCP’s Lok Sabha MP and a descendant of Shivaji Maharaja Udayanraje Bhosale joined BJP in the presence of party president Amit Shah and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Udayanraje's entry into BJP was due to rapport built by Fadnavis, state water resources minister Girish Mahajan and state woman and child development minister Pankaja Munde. They played a key role to convince the otherwise reluctant Udayanraje to migrate to BJP. Interestingly, during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, Udayanraje had strongly criticised Modi and BJP.

Udayanraje's decision is yet another setback to NCP whose many prominent leaders, including some former ministers, have quit the party to join the BJP and Shiv Sena ahead of next month's state Assembly elections.

Despite strong opposition from party leaders from Satara, Pawar had fielded Udayanraje from the Satara seat in 2019 Lok Sabha election in which he won by a margin of around 1,26,528 votes. In 2014, he had won by a margin of around 3,66,000 votes. Jolted by the substantial decrease in his margin of victory, Udayanraje had raised doubts on EVMs. He had offered to resign and sought elections through ballot boxes. Udayanraje had won the Satara seat in 2009 general election. Before that, he was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and the Minister of State for Revenue in the Bharatiya Janata Party -Shiv Sena government during 1995-1999.