MAHAYUTI allies BJP and Shiv Sena, and Opposition NCP (SP) won one seat each out of the five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies on Wednesday, while counting of votes for two other seats is underway. Counting of votes cast using ballot papers stretched for hours. Among the five seats that went to polls on October 23, the BJP has opened its account by bagging one. Shiv Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik emerged victorious in the Amravati Teachers’constituency, while BJP nominee Kaustubh Gawade won the Pune Teachers’ constituency. NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated BJP nominee Smita Jadhav to win the Pune Graduates constituency, according to a statement issued by the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer’s office on Wednesday night. Counting of votes is underway for the Nagpur Graduates and Aurangabad Graduates constituencies, and the results would be declared after the process is completed, the statement said. Polling for the Pune Graduates’, Nagpur Graduates’, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Graduates’, Pune Teachers’ and Amravati Teachers’ constituencies took place on October 23, recording a voter turnout of 72.96 per cent, as per officials. The polls were necessitated because the term of the sitting members of these constituencies ends on December 6. On Wednesday, Sarnaik (Shiv Sena) polled 16,663 votes against the winning quota of 16,134 in the Amravati Teachers’ constituency, officials said. His nearest rivals were Congress’s Aditi Pohre and Sena rebel Shrikant Deshpande. Pohre stood in second place. In Pune Teachers’ constituency, Gawade (BJP) defeated Shiv Sena-backed candidate Sachin Sanap, who is an OSD to State Minister Uday Samant, and sitting Congress MLC Jayant Asagaonkar.

 

At the end of 28 rounds, Gawade secured 23,117 votes while Sanap bagged 16,347 votes. Gawade said his victory belonged to the teaching community and vowed to work towards resolving teachers’ long-pending issues. He said Shiv Sena-backed candidate Sanap contested the election in a friendly manner despite representing a different party within the ruling Mahayuti alliance. In the Pune Graduates constituency, NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated BJP nominee Smita Jadhav. Harshada secured 1,13,840 votes while Smita Jadhav bagged 1,03,912 votes, officials said. The winning quota in the polls is 1,13,095. Speaking at a press conference after her victory, Harshada said she secured the mandate with a comfortable margin after a lengthy counting process involving preferential voting. As results are being declared, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel called for an immediate review of the party’s priorities and organisational structure as its sole candidate appeared to be losing in the Legislative Council elections. The party candidate and three-time sitting MLC Satish Chavan was trailing in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Graduates’ constituency, as counting of votes was underway. Rival NCP (SP) candidate Pratapsinh Patil was leading against him. In a post on X, Patel said the results were a clear and significant warning for the party and stressed the need for introspection to regain people’s trust, realign priorities and bring about organisational reforms. Patel further said in his post that there was a need for immediate and rigorous self-examination as the result was a definite wake-up call. Earlier, he had expressed regret that the party could not get the Pune graduates’ seat while discussing seat-sharing with its Mahayuti allies BJP and Shiv Sena.