Congress's Abhijit Wanjari retains Nagpur graduates' seat by 3,271 votes after 41-hour count

Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari has won the Nagpur division graduates' constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Council for a second straight time, beating the BJP's Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes. Adding first and second preferences, Wanjari ended with 67,231 votes against 63,960 for Kohale. Returning officer and Divisional Commissioner Vijayalakshmi Bidari handed him the certificate of victory. Independent Nitesh Karale, known as Karale Guruji, polled about 25,900 votes; reports give the figure as both 25,908 and 25,909.

The seat is seen as a BJP stronghold, since Nagpur houses the RSS headquarters and is the home city of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Wanjari first took it in 2020, beating the BJP's Sandip Joshi, with 61,701 votes to 42,791 and a margin of 18,919. That was the first Congress win here since 1978. It was also reported that Congress had fielded 12 candidates for 28 Council seats across four states, though another report puts the total at 29 seats, and that Wanjari was the only one to win.

The schedule was announced on September 22 and the notification issued on September 29. Polling was held on October 23, from 8 am to 4 pm, with a deadline of October 31 to complete the process. Of 2,55,603 registered voters, 1,65,672 voted. Turnout was 73.05 per cent in Chandrapur, 72.95 in Gadchiroli, 71.29 in Gondia, 68.35 in Wardha, 67.07 in Bhandara and 60.35 in Nagpur. Thirty-eight candidates were in the fray. Counting started at 8 am on Tuesday, October 27, at the Divisional Sports Complex in Mankapur, on 84 tables, with election observer Dr Harshdeep Kamble and the district collectors, who served as assistant returning officers, present. Officials sorted ballots into bundles of 25, and the formal count began around 2 pm. Most reports say the count ran more than 41 hours, while a couple say about 45.

Postal ballots came first. Of 238, 34 were invalid, leaving 204. Wanjari got 101, Kohale 86 and the rest went to others. Early unofficial first-round figures had Wanjari on 28,536, Kohale on 27,751 and Karale on 14,243. The official first-preference sheet then showed Wanjari on 28,998, Kohale on 28,071 and Karale on 14,708, a Wanjari lead of 927. That sheet recorded 84,003 votes in the first stage, of which 76,875 were valid and 7,128 invalid. Sanjay Thool had 1,762, Mangesh Wankhede 642, Dhananjay Borkar 612, Atul Deshmukh 576 and Sumedh Gadpayale 521. Around the halfway mark Wanjari was reported to lead by 7,000 to 8,000 votes. Karale claimed he would get 40,000 to 45,000 first-preference votes and win in the first round. Reports of the night mentioned a tense face-off, slogan-shouting between Congress and BJP workers that police broke up, and a sit-in by some independents.

After the second round, 1,65,906 votes had been counted, of which 15,032 were invalid and 1,50,874 valid. That put the quota at 75,438, half the valid votes plus one. Kohale led with 60,924 to Wanjari's 56,630, and Karale was third with 24,249. Kohale then needed 14,514 more votes to reach the quota and Wanjari 18,808. Elimination and second-preference counting began. Early on, Kohale got 56 second preferences, Wanjari 63 and Karale 48. After 28 candidates were eliminated, Kohale had 61,029 and Wanjari 56,785, a gap of 4,244. Anil Sole, the BJP rebel who stepped aside at Fadnavis's request but stayed on the ballot, had 267 first-preference and 7 postal votes. Of these 274, second preferences went 88 to Kohale, 41 to Wanjari and 10 to Karale. Kohale's lead peaked at around 5,000 and was still about 4,000 on Wednesday evening, with BJP supporters counting on a win. It was cut to about 1,200 once the last three candidates' votes were distributed, with some 14,000 of Karale's ballots still to be counted. When those second preferences were counted, mostly overnight, they went largely to Wanjari, who overtook Kohale. No candidate ever reached the quota, so the winner was fixed by combining first and second preferences.

Kohale did not concede at first. He said Congress had begun celebrating but that the 36th elimination round was on and he was ahead by 3,000 votes up to it. He said about nine thousand BJP votes were declared invalid because voters wrote '2' instead of '1' against his name. He asked those voters to see that such voting was not right for democracy. He later said only that senior leaders would analyse the defeat, and left the counting centre. Earlier he had demanded a recheck of invalid votes and warned of going to court. Estimates of such ballots differ: one report says six to seven thousand and puts total invalid votes at 15,106, another speaks of over 3,000, and others repeat his figure of nine thousand. Ravi Waghmare, a senior Sangh volunteer, suspected a conspiracy and noted that the election had no NOTA option. He said Karale drew votes in BJP-influenced areas, and that the BJP's choice of Kunbi candidate Kohale, meant to keep caste out of the contest, had misfired.

Karale said that on his ballots Wanjari gets the maximum votes. He said the second preferences reflected anger against the BJP, which had not asked for the number two vote. He added that Wanjari should not take the credit himself. The BJP's own early survey had expected him to get about 15,000 votes.

Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal said the party had beaten the BJP in the RSS city despite its money and power, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written Congress off as a 'zero' too early. "In the end, the balloon of illusion has burst," Sapkal said. Rohit Pawar of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), writing on X on October 28, congratulated Wanjari and taunted Fadnavis over a deleted tweet. BJP MLA Parinay Phuke said the Shinde Sena's votes had not come to the BJP, and that a report would go to party leaders. Reports say BJP state president Ravindra Chavan is seeking answers from district units and is to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 2.

Reasons given for the defeat include discontent over Kohale's choice, Sole's revolt with Girish Vyas, stay-at-home traditional voters, neglect of second and third preferences and of smaller parties, the absence of a Brahmin candidate, and complacent workers. Kohale had lost the West Nagpur Assembly seat to Vikas Thakre.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi won three of the five Council seats and the Mahayuti two. Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) won Pune graduates', and Dr Pratapsinh Patil of the same faction won Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates'. The BJP's Kaustubh Gawade took Pune teachers' and the Shinde Sena's Kiran Sarnaik took Amravati teachers'.

Wanjari, born in Nagpur on May 10, 1973, is a lawyer from a political family. His late father, Govindrao Marotrao Wanjari, was twice a Congress MLA from Nagpur South. He was general secretary of the NSUI Maharashtra unit from 1998 to 2002, then secretary of the state Youth Congress. He has also served the Nagpur District Congress Committee and has been a Congress election observer in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He contested the 2005 South Nagpur by-election and the 2014 East Nagpur Assembly election. Reports say he holds BA and LLB degrees from Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, where he has been on the Senate and Management Council, while another cites Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law. He is secretary of Amar Seva Mandal, which runs 10 colleges. His wife, Smita Wanjari, is an English lecturer and Senate member.

His affidavit lists 18 criminal cases and no convictions, under sections including 325, 323, 294, 363, 147, 148, 143, 145, 149, 506, 353, 452, 447, 448, 188, 269 and 270. It records immovable assets above Rs 12.34 crore and movable assets above Rs 3.87 crore, a total of Rs 16.21 crore, against liabilities of over Rs 3.17 crore.