Maharashtra MLC polls: MVA leads in 3 seats, Mahayuti in 2

Of the five seats, Mahayuti was leading in the Pune and Amravati teachers’ constituencies, while the MVA was ahead in the Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur.

Preliminary trends from counting for the five legislative council seats for which polling was held on Friday showed that the ruling Mahayuti alliance was leading in two constituencies, while the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition was ahead in three seats. With several prominent candidates in the fray, including rebels from both alliances, and preferential votes likely to play a decisive role, the final results are expected only in the early hours of Wednesday.

Polling officials handle ballot papers during the counting of votes for the Maharashtra Legislative Council election, in Nagpur. (PTI)

Of the five seats that went to polls, Mahayuti was leading in the Pune and Amravati teachers’ constituencies, while the MVA was ahead in the Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur graduates’ constituencies.

Constituencies' varying polling trends

In the Pune teachers’ constituency, BJP candidate Kaustubh Gawade was leading, followed by Shiv Sena-backed candidate Sachin Sanap and independent candidate Dattatray Sawant. Sitting MLC and Congress candidate Jayant Asgaonkar was trailing in fourth place. Of the votes counted, 51,511 were valid and 1,675 were rejected. The winning quota was fixed at 25,756 votes, making second-preference votes potentially decisive.

The Pune graduates’ constituency witnessed a close contest between MVA candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav and Mahayuti candidate Dr Smita Jadhav. According to preliminary trends, Deshmukh-Jadhav was slightly ahead of her rival.

In the Aurangabad graduates’ constituency, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Pratapsinh Patil was ahead of Mahayuti candidate and sitting MLC Satish Chavan by 4,000 votes after around 35,000 votes were counted. Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Dilip Ghuge was one of the candidates for the seat.

In the Nagpur graduates’ constituency, after trailing initially, Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari took the lead over BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale by 927 votes, polling 28,998 votes against Kohale’s 28,071. The two candidates together polled 57,069 of the 76,875 votes counted.

In the Amravati teachers’ constituency, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate Kiran Sarnaik was leading after around 14,000 votes were counted. Rebel Sena leader and former MLC Shrikant Deshpande was ahead of Congress candidate Aditi Pohare, who was trailing.

Voting trends and preparatory work

Counting for all five seats began at 8am on Tuesday, but preparatory work continued till 3pm as the staff sorted ballot papers and distributed them among counting tables.

“The first-preference quota had been determined from the valid votes before counting began. With multiple prominent candidates contesting several seats, second- and third-preference votes were also expected to influence the outcomes, delaying the final results,” said an election official.

A total of 1.06 million graduate and teacher voters were eligible to vote across 2,419 polling stations in the five constituencies. Turnout was highest in the Amravati teachers’ constituency at 91.08%, followed by Pune teachers’ at 85.87%. The Nagpur graduates’ constituency recorded 64.76% turnout, Pune graduates’ 62.78% and Aurangabad graduates’ 58.67%.