The Congress’s victory in the Nagpur Graduates’ MLC seat forced Devendra Fadnavis to delete his X post mocking the grand old party with a “big fat zero” jibe.
In a dramatic turn of events, the Congress pulled off a surprise victory in Maharashtra by winning the Nagpur Graduates’ constituency seat in the MLC polls. The win is significant as Nagpur is the home turf of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Congress’s victory also prompted Fadnavis to delete his post on X in which he had mocked the Opposition party, claiming it had secured a “big fat zero” in the MLC polls.
With this win, the Congress managed opened its account in the elections. Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was targeting the grand old party for failing to win even a single seat in the polls.
Nagpur MLC Result
In a nail-biting contest, Congress candidate and sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari defeated his closest rival, BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale, by 3,271 votes to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency seat.
The counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and concluded in the early hours of Thursday.
The Congress had fielded sitting MLC Wanjari, who secured 67,231 votes. The BJP had fielded former MLA Sudhakar Kohale, who received 63,960 votes. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had also campaigned extensively for Kohale.
Kohale was leading his Congress rival by 4,294 votes after the second round of counting on Wednesday.
After the second round of counting of first-preference votes, Kohale had polled 60,924 votes, while Wanjari had secured 56,630. Independent candidate Nitesh Karale received 24,249 votes.
However, as no candidate secured the required quota of votes, the counting proceeded to the second-preference votes.
During the elimination rounds, Wanjari secured 67,231 votes, while Kohale received 63,960 votes, a senior poll official told PTI.
The Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency had long been represented by Union Minister Gadkari, who served as an MLC for several terms.
In the previous election, Wanjari had defeated BJP candidate Sandip Joshi.
Maharashtra MLC Results
Mahayuti allies BJP and Shiv Sena won one seat each out of the five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies on Wednesday, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) claimed victory in the remaining three seats, including Nagpur.
The results of three constituencies have been formally declared even as counting continued in two other seats. Polling was held using ballot papers.
The NCP (SP) has won the Pune Graduates constituency and claimed to be leading in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Graduates constituency. Both seats were held earlier by the undivided NCP (currently a Mahayuti constituent) before it split in 2023.
