Chandrakant Patil confident of one-sided Mahayuti win in Pune graduates and teachers polls

Voting is under way today for the Pune division graduates' and teachers' constituency seats. Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Dada Patil reached Kolhapur in the morning and visited the booths set up outside polling stations. He welcomed voters arriving to cast their ballots with a rose.

Speaking to the media, Patil said he was fully confident that both Mahayuti candidates would win. According to him, Smita Jadhav in the Pune graduates' constituency and Kaustubh Gawade in the teachers' constituency would both win one-sided victories, that is, with more than 50 per cent of the votes. Patil said he had no doubt about it. The Shiv Sena has also fielded a candidate in the teachers' constituency, but Patil said it would make no difference.

Asked about the role of Ravindra Dhangekar, Patil said that while working within the Mahayuti, everyone, himself included, should speak with caution.

Meanwhile, Manoj Jarange Patil has made an audio clip go viral. Chandrakant Patil expressed doubt about it and said he suspected the clip could have been made with AI. He also appealed to Mahayuti leaders to verify such audio clips first and react only afterwards.

Turning to the election figures, polling is on at 741 centres for the graduates' seat and 310 centres for the teachers' seat in the Pune division. There are 47 candidates in the fray for the graduates' seat and 30 for the teachers' seat. In all, 1,051 polling centres have been set up across the division's five districts for the two seats, and 4,49,959 voters will cast their votes.

On the teachers' seat, the main contest is expected to be between Sachin Sanap of the Shinde Sena, Jayant Asgaonkar of the Congress and Kaustubh Gawade of the BJP. On the graduates' seat, Mahayuti candidate Smita Jadhav faces a challenge from Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the Sharad Pawar faction.

The graduates' seat has 3,88,019 voters in all. Pune has 160 centres and 88,202 voters, Satara 93 centres and 47,463 voters, Solapur 117 centres and 49,072 voters, and Sangli 159 centres and 88,070 voters. Kolhapur has the most, with 212 centres and 1,14,562 voters.

The teachers' seat has 310 centres and 61,940 voters in all. Pune has 72 centres and 16,822 voters, Solapur 76 centres and 15,303 voters, Satara 44 centres and 9,454 voters, and Sangli 48 centres and 8,062 voters. Kolhapur has 70 centres and 12,299 voters.