Elections 98

State:	Maharashtra
Constituency:	Satara
Total Votes Polled:	605525
Winner: INC	Abhaysinh Shahumaharaj Bhosale	389238
Runner Up: SHS	Hindurao Nilkanthrao Naik Nimbalkar	207762
Margin: 181476 (47%)

Elections 96

State:	Maharashtra
Constituency:	Satara
Total Votes Polled:	548775
Winner: SHS	Naik Nimbalkar Hindurao Nilkanthra	190526
Runner Up: INC	Bhosale Prataprao Baburao	178717
Margin: 11809 (2.21%)

This constituency voted the CPI in 1957, and stayed with one formation or the other of the Congress ever since. Former chief minister and former deputy prime minister under Indira Gandhi, Y B Chavan, was elected from here from 1967 to 1980 on the Congress ticket (in 1980, it was the Congress-Urs ticket). In 1984, 1989 and in 1991 Pratap Bhonsale was the Congress MP; in 1996 the Shiv Sena's H N N Nimbalkar, who had been defeated in 1991, finally ousted the sitting MP by just 12,000 votes. Also in the fray as an Independent was a scion of the former royal family, Udayaraje Pratapsingh Bhonsale, who took away 113,000 votes.