Mahayuti leads in 3 Maharashtra Council seats, MVA ahead in 2; preferential votes hold key

Preliminary trends in the counting of votes for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats showed the ruling Mahayuti alliance leading in three constituencies, while the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was ahead in two. With several prominent candidates in the fray, including rebels from both alliances, preferential votes were expected to play a crucial role, delaying the final results until after midnight on Tuesday.

The Mahayuti was leading in the Pune and Amravati Teachers’ constituencies and the Nagpur Graduates’ constituency. The MVA was ahead in the Pune and Aurangabad Graduates’ constituencies.

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 declared valid, while 1,675 were rejected. The winning quota was fixed at 25,756 votes, making second-preference votes potentially decisive in determining the winner.

The Pune Graduates’ constituency witnessed a close contest between MVA candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav and Mahayuti candidate Dr Smita Jadhav. Preliminary trends showed Deshmukh-Jadhav marginally ahead of her rival.

In the Aurangabad Graduates’ constituency, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Pratapsinh Patil was leading Mahayuti candidate and sitting MLC Satish Chavan by around 4,000 votes after approximately 35,000 votes had been counted. Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Dilip Ghuge was also in contention.

In the Nagpur Graduates’ constituency, BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale was leading Congress candidate Abhijit Vanjari by around 4,000 votes after the first round of counting. Independent candidate Nitesh Karale was in third place, with a relatively narrow gap separating the three candidates.

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

Counting delayed as ballot papers were sorted

Counting began at 8 am on Tuesday, but preparatory work continued until 3 pm as officials 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,” an election official said.

A total of 10,68,072 graduate and teacher voters were eligible to cast their votes across 2,419 polling stations in the five constituencies.

Turnout was highest in the Amravati Teachers’ constituency at 91.08%, followed by the Pune Teachers’ constituency at 85.87%. The Nagpur Graduates’ constituency recorded a turnout of 64.76%, while Pune Graduates’ and Aurangabad Graduates’ registered 62.78% and 58.67%, respectively.