Pune, October 24: Udayanraje Bhosale, the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) from Satara Lok Sabha seat, is trailing on the seat by a large number of votes (94,000 by current count) and early trends show that Bhosle could lose the contest. Udayanraje Bhosale, who was in the Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had quit the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the polls. The counting of votes for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2019 and bypoll seats is underway on Thursday, October 24. Bypoll Results 2019 Live News Updates: BJP Maintains Lead in Six Assembly Seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The Election Commission will announce the bypoll results for the Satara constituency today, later in the day. Satara constituency is considered an NCP bastion. However, the NCP MP from the seat, Udayanraje Bhosale, had quit the party. The NCP then fielded Shriniwas Patil from the seat. Patil was leading with over 2,13,875 votes. Bhosale, in comparison, was trailing with the tally of 1,82,099.

The by-election in Satara was necessitated after sitting MP Udayanraje Bhosale's quit the NCP and defected to the BJP. The NCP has fielded Shriniwas Patil, a long-time friend of party patriarch Sharad Pawar and a popular orator in the region.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself held a huge rally in favour of Bhosale ahead of the by-elections. The Prime Minister had endorsed Udayanraje Bhosale from the Satara seat and appealed the voters to help the BJP candidate win from the seat. Bhosale was one of the candidates who had quit the NCP ahead of the polls even though he was considered close to NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 24, 2019 01:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).