Congress's Abhijit Wanjari wins Nagpur graduates' constituency after 41-hour count

Abhijit Wanjari of the Indian National Congress has won the Nagpur division Legislative Council graduates' constituency election. Returning officer and Divisional Commissioner Vijayalakshmi Bidari presented him the certificate of victory. The result was announced in Nagpur on October 29, after a count that ran for 41 hours.

According to the final figures, Wanjari (Congress) secured 67,231 votes. The BJP's Sudhakar Kohale got 63,960 votes. Neither of the two, and in fact no candidate, reached the quota of 75,438 votes needed to win. The result therefore had to be decided on second preference votes.

Counting began at 8 am on Tuesday, October 27, at the divisional sports complex in Mankapur. The count was conducted at 84 tables and ran for more than 41 hours. Election observer Dr Harshdeep Kamble, the assistant returning officers of all the districts and the district collectors were present during the count.

In two rounds of counting first preference votes, no candidate reached the quota of 75,438 votes needed to win, so an elimination round of second preference votes had to be held. Of the 1,65,906 first preference votes in all, 15,032 were declared invalid and 1,50,874 were counted as valid.

Even after the elimination round of second preference votes, no one reached the quota. Wanjari, who had the highest number of votes when first and second preference votes were taken together, was therefore declared winner. As the quota was not met, the result was finally given by adding up the votes of both preferences.

The Election Commission of India announced the election schedule on September 22. The notification was issued on September 29. Polling was held on October 23 from 8 am to 4 pm. The count began on October 27 and finished 41 hours later. The Commission has fixed a schedule to complete the entire process by October 31.