Barshi
The Barshi assembly constituency, situated in Solapur district, is one of Maharashtra's 288 legislative assembly seats and falls under the Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency. It is a General category seat with a mix of rural and urban voters.
According to the 2011 Census, the rural voter population stands at approximately 204,103 (around 68.15%), while the urban electorate is about 95,388 (around 31.85%). As of the 2019 parliamentary elections, the total number of registered voters in Barshi was 299,491, with a voter turnout of 74.9% during the assembly elections that year.
The constituency includes a diverse demographic composition, with around 13.58% (40,671) Scheduled Caste voters, 1.28% (3,833) Scheduled Tribe voters, and approximately 8.2% (24,558) Muslim voters.
In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Rajendra Vitthal Raut, who contested as an Independent candidate, won the Barshi seat by defeating Shiv Sena’s Dilip Gangadhar Sopal with a narrow margin of 3,076 votes. The constituency had an active voter turnout rate of about 73.9%.
For the upcoming 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Rajendra Vitthal Raut, who previously won as an Independent, will be contesting under the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) banner.
His opponent, Dilip Gangadhar Sopal, is running as the candidate from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction.
This election is particularly significant given the recent political realignments in Maharashtra, where key alliances have reshaped, leading to a new dynamic between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition and the BJP-led Maha Yuti alliance.
The state elections are scheduled for November 20, with the vote counting set for November 23, alongside the bypolls in several other states.