Voting under way for Maharashtra Council graduate and teacher seats; 182 candidates in the fray

Voting is under way today, Friday, October 23, for three graduate and two teacher seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Polling runs from 8 am to 4 pm. A total of 182 candidates are in the fray for the five seats, and their fate will be sealed in the ballot boxes today.

A notable sight emerged from Solapur. For the Pune teachers' and graduates' elections, BJP leader Dilip Mane led a group vote. Some 1,700 voters from his BMIT educational institution were seen going to vote together. Mane, a former MLA, joined the BJP only a few months ago. He set out for the polling with all the voters of the institution.

Harshada Deshmukh Jadhav, the Maha Vikas Aghadi's graduate candidate for the Pune division, expressed confidence of victory. She said graduates are at the centre of the election and she has got a chance to resolve their questions. According to her, the graduate voter is discerning, daily inflation has risen and the voter will take the right decision. She said she had taken Pawar saheb's blessings at the very start. She said that just as gulal flew in Kolhapur, it will fly again on the 27th. She also appealed to everyone to vote in the morning if possible.

Independent candidate Sachin Sanap is also in the contest from the Pune teachers' constituency. The Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) has announced its support for him, and strong efforts were made to campaign for him. On polling day, Sanap's family is confident of his victory. The family said it hoped that the son of an ordinary family would become the teachers' MLA. Sanap visited a temple and appealed to everyone to vote. He also said the teachers' MLA should be a teacher.

The administration claims full preparations have been made for all five constituencies. A total of 2,419 polling stations have been set up, and 10,68,072 voters will exercise their franchise today. The elections are for the graduate constituencies of Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur, and the teachers' constituencies of Amravati and Pune.

With 182 candidates, the contest has become very tight. Rebellion in the Mahayuti and resentment within the party have raised concern for its official candidates. In the MVA, a friendly contest is under way, and all eyes are on who will win out.

Voting is taking place across several districts. For Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, polling is in 8 districts. For the Pune teachers' and graduates' seats, voting is in Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur. For the Amravati teachers' constituency, votes are being cast in Amravati, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Akola and Washim. For the Nagpur graduates' seat, voting is in Nagpur, Chandrapur, Wardha, Gondia, Bhandara and Gadchiroli.