Prakash Bharsakale Hopes To Retain Akot Assembly Seat For BJP (facebook.com/MLAprakashbharsakale)

BJP legislator Prakash Gunvantrao Bharsakale is seeking his third consecutive term from Maharashtra’s Akot assembly segment. He is pitted against Congress candidate Mahesh Gangane. Akot, along with 287 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.

Bharsakale began his career as a Shiv Sena worker. In the 1990 assembly election, he made his electoral debut from Daryapur constituency on the Shiv Sena ticket and won. He retained the seat in the 1995, 1999, and 2004 polls as well.

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When the senior Sena leader and then leader of the opposition, Narayan Rane, quit Shiv Sena and joined the Congress, Bharsakle followed him. He was a Rane loyalist back then. In 2007, he contested by-election from the seat on a Congress ticket and emerged winner.

When Daryapur constituency became a SC reserve seat in 2009, Bharsakle shifted to the neighbouring Akot assembly segment. He fought for the seat as an independent candidate but lost. He got relegated to third position with 32,415 votes.

In 2012, Bharsakale left Congress and joined the BJP. In the 2014 Assembly polls, he contested from Akot as a saffron party nominee and won the seat. He defeated Congress candidate Gangane Mahesh Sudhakarrao by a margin of 31,411 votes. In 2019, he retained the seat by securing 48,586 votes, defeating Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi candidate Santosh Vasant Rahate with a margin of 7,260 votes.

In 1991, Bharsakale has also made his debut attempt in the Lok Sabha election. He contested against Congress leader and former President of India Pratibha Patil but lost.

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This Assembly elections mark first one in the state after Shiv Sena and  NCP split in 2022, and 2023 respectively. The ruling Mahayuti alliance consists of the BJP, the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, and the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).  The opposition alliance comprise the INDIA bloc’s MVA or the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which has the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), or SS (UBT) led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray, the NCP (SP) faction led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress.