Satara district bank polls: senior leaders meet as nominations continue, Shivendrasinhraje meets Udayanraje
Senior leaders held meetings on Monday while nominations are being filed for the Satara District Central Cooperative Bank election, but no final political equation has emerged.
Nominations are being filed for the election to the Satara District Central Cooperative Bank. Meanwhile, meetings among the district's senior leaders have suddenly picked up pace. On Monday, senior leaders met for about an hour and a half on the fourth floor of the district bank. Afterwards, Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale and MP Udayanraje Bhosale spoke for nearly an hour at Jalmandir Palace. The two meetings have put the political arithmetic of the bank election back in the spotlight.
The fourth-floor meeting was attended by state Public Works Minister Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Makarand Patil, MP Nitin Patil and bank director Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar. What was discussed has not been officially disclosed. Still, with the election to the bank's 21 director posts approaching, all eyes are on the meeting. Shivendrasinhraje said further decisions would be taken as advised by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He also said the way forward would be decided only after talking to the constituents of the Mahayuti alliance. This indicates that nominations are being filed but the final political equation has not yet been formed.
From the start, the candidacies of big political names have drawn attention this time. MP Udayanraje Bhosale marked his presence in the election by filing his nomination from the housing constituency. Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar then filed his nomination from the processing industries constituency.
In the last election, 11 seats in the society constituency were won unopposed. Polling was held for the remaining ten seats. This time, big leaders have become active in the early phase of nominations, so it will become clear in the coming days whose name comes up from which constituency.
After the meeting at the bank, Shivendrasinhraje spoke to the media at his Suruchi residence. He then went to Jalmandir Palace and met Udayanraje Bhosale. The two leaders talked for about an hour. Details of this conversation have not emerged either, but the meeting between the two Rajes in the middle of the election process became a talking point in political circles.
Further discussions are likely to cover whether the bank's experienced sitting directors should be given another chance or new faces fielded in some constituencies. Shivendrasinhraje has also made it clear that there will be more talks before the final decision.
There is still time to file nominations, so meetings and political discussions may gather further pace in the coming days. The whole district is now watching what political message emerges from Monday's meetings and how it shows in the nominations.
