Congress's 1st win in MLC polls as Abhijit Wanjari retains Nagpur seat after tight contest

Congress candidate and sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari defeated BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency seat after more than 40 hours of counting, during which the lead changed hands several times. Wanjari secured 67,231 votes, while Kohale, a former MLA, received 63,960 votes. Kohale had initially taken a lead of 4,294 votes over Wanjari after the second round of counting on Wednesday.

Kohale received 60,924 first-preference votes, compared with 56,630 votes for Wanjari. Independent candidate Nitesh Karale secured 24,249 votes.

As no candidate reached the required quota based on first-preference votes, counting moved to second-preference votes. Wanjari eventually overtook Kohale during the subsequent elimination rounds, according to reports citing a senior election official.

The contest drew considerable attention as Nagpur is the home turf of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, both of whom had campaigned extensively for Kohale. Gadkari had represented the Nagpur Graduates’ constituency for several terms as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) before moving to national politics. In the previous election, Wanjari defeated BJP candidate Sandip Joshi to win the seat.

Before the final results were announced, Kohale raised questions about the effectiveness of the voting process in graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, while maintaining that he would accept the outcome.

“Based on the trends in the last few rounds, it appears that the result may favour the Congress candidate. Regardless of the outcome, I am prepared to accept it,” he said.

Elections to five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies were held, with the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) winning two seats each. The results also highlighted differences within the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, as it failed to secure victories across all the contests.

The BJP won one seat, while its ally, the Shiv Sena, secured another. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP failed to win a seat, whereas the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) bagged two, benefiting from differences among Mahayuti allies over seat-sharing arrangements.