For the Congress’s Sushilkumar Shinde, a former Maharashtra CM and Union Minister, defeat at the hands of the BJP’s Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya Swami portends the end of his political career, too.
The Congress veteran, who was contesting from Maharashtra’s Solapur seat, had made it clear that this election would be his last.
Though Shinde was elected a number of times as MLA in the 1970s, and twice as MP, he had suffered defeat in the 2014 election.
This election was supposed to be a comeback for Shinde, since Solapur was once seen as his bastion.