He is in the shadow cast by a coming event

The incumbent provincial bigwig is being increasingly sidelined by the powers that be these days giving the credence to a current rumour that a close kinsman of a very high political authority is now being groomed for this high post, they say.

The incumbent being given the cold shoulder, now a highly disillusioned one, is not even being invited to important public functions in the province. The provincial politicos who now ignore the incumbent are said to be racing to warm their way into the graces of the character expected to succeed the latter shortly. 

The dejected incumbent is said to have begun telling all and sundry that he has decided to quit politics.