Battle royal in Maharashtra polls: The big contenders

Elections have often been described as a litmus test of parliamentary democracy. But political parties in Maharashtra have fallen back on erstwhile royal families to notch up victories in the upcoming assembly elections.
In Satara, Shivendraraje Bhosale, scion of the royal family of Satara and descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, is defending his seat as a BJP candidate for a fifth term. His father Abhaysinhraje Bhosale was a six-term MLA from the constituency across parties like the Janata Party, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Shivendraraje, or Babaraje as he is referred to, was with the NCP and switched over to the BJP before the 2019 state elections. His cousin Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, the titular king of Satara, is the BJP MP from Satara Lok Sabha seat.
In neighbouring Phaltan, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), members of the Naik Nimbalkar royal clan are working to elect NCP MLA Deepak Chavan to the assembly.
In Kolhapur North, Madhurimaraje Chhatrapati (Congress), the daughter-in-law of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the king of Kolhapur and the Congress MP from the seat, was pitted against Rajesh Kshirsagar of the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde. Shahu Maharaj is the descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from the line led by his younger son Chhatrapati Rajaram. The Satara royals are descendants of Shivaji Maharaj’s elder son Chhatrapati Sambhaji.
However, in a dramatic development, Madhurimaraje withdrew from the fray on November 4, the last date for withdrawal of nominations. This led to an upset Satej (Bunty) Patil, senior Congress leader and former minister, voicing his anger in public.
Madhurimaraje’s husband Malojiraje was the MLA from Kolhapur North between 2004 and 2009, and her father is former minister late Digvijay Khanvilkar. Malojiraje’s elder brother and crown prince Yuvraj Sambhajiraje, a former nominated Rajya Sabha MP, leads his own outfit Swarajya and is part of a third front of smaller parties and farmer groups, which is expected to play spoiler in some assembly seats.
Madhurimaraje was nominated as the Congress candidate after opposition from local Congress leaders to Rajesh Latkar, who was earlier nominated from the seat. However, her volte face has led to embarrassment for the Congress, which has been forced to back Latkar, who is now contesting as an Independent.
In nearby Kagal, Raje Samarjitsinh Ghatge, the titular head of the Kagal (Senior) royal family, is an NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate against Hasan Mushrif, the medical education minister and candidate of the NCP faction led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. Ghatge hails from the family of the iconic Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, who was born as Yashwantrao Ghatge, and adopted by the royal family of Kolhapur. Shahu Maharaj, who ruled till 1922, was the first to introduce caste-based reservations (1902) in his princely state.
In the faraway tribal-dominated Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha, three members of the royal family of Aheri are pitted against each other in a triangular fight. Minister Dharmaraobaba Atram of the NCP faces a challenge from his daughter Bhagyashri Atram Halgekar of the NCP (SCP), while former BJP minister and reigning royal Raje Ambarishrao Atram is contesting as an Independent from the seat in the Left-wing extremism-affected region.
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