The two of them are pitted against each other yet again, continuing their rivalry from the 2014 and 2019 polls. However, experts believe that securing another term from this Congress stronghold might not be a cakewalk for Chavan as the growing support base of the saffron party in the region might turn the tide in Bhosale’s favour.
Although Bhosale suffered two back-to-back defeats against Chavan in the last two elections, he was able to grow his vote bank significantly in the Assembly and managed to bridge the vote gap between him and the senior Congress leader from 18,210 in 2014 to 9,130 votes in 2019.
Apart from this, the BJP is also betting big on its victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the Satara parliamentary constituency, which includes the Karad South Assembly segment. Interestingly, the saffron party’s leader Udayanraje Bhosale garnered a few hundred extra votes in the Karad South region to emerge victorious from the Satara seat.
Last time, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Assembly polls and bagged 105 of the 288 seats. The then-undivided Shiv Sena got 56 seats, while Congress and NCP managed to win 44 and 54 seats, respectively.
This time, the ruling Mahayuti — the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — is neck-and-neck against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), including the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP.
Karad South: Polling Date
In Maharashtra, voting for the 2024 Assembly election will be held in a single phase on November 20, covering all 288 seats in the state, including Karad South.
The counting of votes is on November 23.
Karad South: Candidates List
In Karad South, eight contestants are pitted against each other in the 2024 elections. Here’s the complete list:
| Candidate Names | Party |
| Prithviraj Chavan | Congress |
| Atul Bhosale | Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) |
| Krishna Gaikwad | Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) |
| Indrajit Gujar | Swabhimani Paksha |
| Mahesh Jirange | Rashtriya Samaj Paksha |
| Sanjay Gade | Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi |
| Vishwjeet Undalkar | Independent |
| Shama Shaikh | Independent |
2019 result
During the 2019 Assembly election in Maharashtra, Congress’ Prithviraj Chavan defeated BJP’s Atul Bhosale by 9,130 votes.
| Candidate Names | Party | Votes |
| Prithviraj Chavan | Congress | 92,296 (43.9%) |
| Atul Bhosale | BJP | 83,166 (39.56%) |
| NOTA | – | 584 (0.28%) |
