BJP-backed Kaustubh Gawade wins Pune teachers' seat as Congress MLC Jayant Asgaonkar is eliminated

Results are coming in for the Pune teachers' constituency of the state Legislative Council, and the election has produced a major political upset. Congress's sitting member, Jayant Asgaonkar, was defeated. He was eliminated from the race during the count of second-preference votes, which cleared the way for BJP-backed candidate Kaustubh Gawade.

In the second-preference count, Asgaonkar got only 8,965 votes, and that is why he was eliminated. Gawade, on the other hand, kept a strong lead with 18,385 votes, so his victory has become a formality.

Prof. Sachin Sanap, who was backed by the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, is second with 11,983 votes. Polling was held on October 23. The results were due to be declared yesterday, October 27, but the counting was slow and closely fought. Asgaonkar was defeated at the end of a count that ran for more than 24 hours.

A tight contest had been expected in this election. However, Gawade took the lead and defeated Dattatraya Sawant. After the first few rounds, Sawant slipped to third place. Prof. Sachin Sanap, backed by the Shinde Sena, moved up to second. Asgaonkar was eliminated after the second-preference votes were counted.

In the Pune teachers' constituency count, a total of 1,675 votes were rejected, while 51,511 votes were treated as valid. On the basis of these valid votes, the quota needed to win was fixed at 25,756 votes. All eyes were on which candidate would reach the quota. If the required quota is not met on first-preference votes, the count of subsequent preferences can affect the result.

Meanwhile, in the Pune graduates' constituency, early trends showed a close contest between Maha Vikas Aghadi's Harshada Jadhav and Mahayuti's Dr Smita Jadhav. After the count, Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the Sharad Pawar faction was declared the winner.