Mumbai, Mar 29 (IANS): Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s sitting MP from Satara, Shriniwas D. Patil has decided to bow out of the Lok Sabha 2024 race owing to ill health, party supremo Sharad Pawar announced here on Friday.

Patil (83) won in the 2019 LS by-polls, trouncing the royal contender Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhonsle, in the keenly contested election when Pawar was seen sporting a white shirt, fully soaked in pouring cold rain, while addressing a massive rally there, grabbing national headlines.

A senior former bureaucrat, 3-time MP and ex-governor of Sikkim, Patil will not contest the Satara seat, but assured his support and services for any candidate fielded by the NCP (SP), said Pawar.

The party Chief said that in view of Patil’s stepping out of the poll race, “We have to be very careful about our candidate,” adding that many leaders are contenders for the Satara seat, an erstwhile royal seat of the Chhatrapati clan.

However, Pawar said that the party will discuss all aspects and announce its Satara candidate in the next couple of days who would lock horns with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s likely nominee, Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhonsle.

In the adjoining former royal seat of Kolhapur, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)’s united candidate, Chhatrapati Shrimant Shahu Maharaj will contest on a Congress ticket.