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This story is from May 24, 2019

Maharashtra election results: His votebank split, former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde loses to seer in Solapur

Siddheshwar Shivacharya, a seer and the BJP candidate for the Solapur Lok Sabha (LS) seat, rode on a split in the traditional Congress votes to defeat former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde. The vote split was triggered by third-placed contestant Prakash Ambedkar, great-grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Maharashtra election results: His votebank split, former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde loses to seer in Solapur
Sushil Kumar Shinde
SOLAPUR: Siddheshwar Shivacharya, a seer and the BJP candidate for the Solapur Lok Sabha (LS) seat, rode on a split in the traditional Congress votes to defeat former Union home minister Sushil kumar Shinde. The vote split was triggered by third-placed contestant Prakash Ambedkar, great grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
The seer, popularly known as Maharaj, garnered 5,24,985 votes on Thursday.
He established an unassailable lead of 1,58,608 votes over the 3,66,377 votes polled by Shinde. Ambedkar, on the other had, secured 1,70,007 votes, which was more than the difference in votes polled by Maharaj and Shinde.
In the 2014 LS polls, Shinde was defeated by Sharad Bansode, a political novice fielded by the BJP. This time, though, the saffron party decided against re-nominating Bansode after an internal assessment revealed disillusionment against him for his disconnect with the people.
The BJP preferred fielding Maharaj considering his huge following and popularity among the influential Lingayat and Padmashali communities in Solapur district. The Lingayats constitute almost 3.5 lakh of the total 18 lakh voters in Solapur constitutency, while the Padmashalis account for another 3 lakh voters.
A part of the BJP's strategy included polarising the voters by fielding the seer and exposing Shinde to a division of Dalit, Muslim, Maratha and Dhangar votes, several of which were garnered by Ambedkar. Ambedkar contested as a nominee of the Bahujan Vanchit Aaghadi, a Dalit-Muslim combine involving the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
After the poll reversal suffered in 2014, Shinde had made concerted efforts to establish good public contact across the Solapur constituency, but that did not prove enough.
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