Voting begins for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, 182 candidates in the fray

Pune, October 23, 2026: Voting is under way today for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The seats belong to graduates' and teachers' constituencies. A total of 182 candidates are in the fray, and about 10 lakh voters will decide their fate.

Votes are being cast in the graduates' constituencies of Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Voting is also under way in the teachers' constituencies of Pune and Amravati. Polling began at 8 am and will continue until 4 pm.

Rebel candidates and Independents have posed a challenge in these elections. This has made the contest important for both the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition parties.

The Pune division has 77 candidates in all. Voting is taking place in the districts of Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur. For the graduates' and teachers' constituencies together, 1,051 polling stations have been set up and 4,49,959 voters are eligible to vote. There are 47 candidates for the graduates' seat, while 30 are contesting the teachers' seat.

In the Pune teachers' constituency, the main contest is seen to be between Shiv Sena candidate Sachin Sanap, Congress candidate Jayant Asgaonkar and BJP candidate Kaustubh Gavade. In the graduates' seat, Mahayuti candidate Smita Jadhav faces a challenge from Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the NCP (SP), led by Sharad Pawar.

Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil visited polling booths in Kolhapur in the morning and welcomed voters with roses. He expressed confidence that both Mahayuti candidates would win comfortably. He claimed that both would get more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Asked about the stand of Congress leader Ravindra Dhangekar, Patil said that all Mahayuti leaders, himself included, should be careful as members of the alliance when making public statements.

Here are the arrangements in the other constituencies. The Pune graduates' constituency has 3,88,019 voters and 741 polling stations. The Pune teachers' constituency has 61,940 voters and 310 polling stations. The Nagpur graduates' constituency, covering the districts of Nagpur, Chandrapur, Wardha, Gondia, Bhandara and Gadchiroli, has 445 polling stations and 2,25,603 eligible voters.

The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates' constituency, which covers the eight districts of Marathwada, has 3,26,700 voters and 842 polling stations. The Amravati teachers' constituency has 35,810 eligible voters, and voting is taking place at 81 centres in the districts of Amravati, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Akola and Washim.

Eleven documents are valid for identification. Besides the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC), voters can show any one of 10 other identity documents. These include the Aadhaar card, driving licence, PAN card, passport, and service identity cards of government departments and public sector undertakings. Identity cards issued to MPs, MLAs and members of the Legislative Council, and service cards of the educational institutions where registered teachers or graduates work, will also be accepted.

Original degree or diploma certificates issued by universities, original disability certificates issued by competent authorities, and the Unique Disability ID (UDID) card are also valid.

The voting will decide who from these five constituencies reaches the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Votes are to be counted on October 27.