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

Voting for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council began at 8 am on Friday. A total of 182 candidates are seeking votes from graduate and teacher voters across the state. Polling will continue till 4 pm and the votes will be counted on October 27.

Three of the five seats are graduates' constituencies, in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Pune and Nagpur. The other two are teachers' constituencies, in Amravati and Pune. Only registered graduates and teachers living in the respective constituencies can vote.

A total of 2,419 polling stations have been set up across the five constituencies, where 10,68,072 voters are expected to cast their votes. A dry day had been declared in Pune, Nagpur and Amravati ahead of the polling.

The biggest contest today is in the Pune Graduates' constituency, where 47 candidates are in the fray. The main names include Dr Smita Yogesh Jadhav of the BJP, Harshada Jadhav-Deshmukh of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Sunil Modi of the Shiv Sena (UBT). The seat covers registered graduate voters of Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur districts.

In the Nagpur Graduates' constituency, 38 candidates are contesting. They include Sudhakar Vitthalrao Kohale of the BJP and Congress candidate Abhijit Govindrao Wanjari. According to officials, 21,349 voters will vote at 35 polling stations here. About 300 staff have been deployed to ensure the process runs smoothly. Wanjari voted early in the morning with his wife.

In the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates' constituency, 41 candidates are in the fray, including Satish Bhanudasrao Chavan of the NCP.

In the Amravati Teachers' constituency, 26 candidates are contesting. They include Aditi Pohare of the Congress and Kiran Ramrao Sarnaik of the Shiv Sena.

In the Pune Teachers' constituency, 30 candidates' names are on the ballot. They include Kaustubh Muralidhar Gavade of the BJP and Jayant Dinkar Asgaonkar of the Congress. Two independent candidates backed by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena are also in the fray.

The votes will be counted on Tuesday, October 27, and the results for all five seats will be declared the same day.