Counting under way for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats as Mahayuti, MVA face close contest

Counting of votes for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council began at 8 am on Tuesday. Results are due today for the graduates' constituencies of Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Counting for the teachers' constituencies of Pune and Amravati is also under way.

The contest is between the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and the NCP led by Sunetra Pawar, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). A close fight is expected between the two.

Voting was held on October 23 for the Pune graduates, Nagpur graduates, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) graduates, Pune teachers and Amravati teachers constituencies. Overall turnout that day was 72.96 per cent. The term of the sitting members of all five seats ends on December 6, which is why the election was held.

A total of 182 candidates are in the fray across the five seats. Both the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have had to contend with rebellion within their ranks and challenges from independent candidates.

In the Nagpur graduates seat, sitting Congress MLC Abhijit Wanjari is in a direct contest with BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale. BJP rebel Anil Sole had announced that he was withdrawing and backing Kohale. However, the deadline for withdrawal of nominations had passed, so he could not withdraw and his name stayed on the ballot paper.

In the Pune graduates seat, the BJP has fielded Smita Jadhav. She faces Harshada Deshmukh, the candidate of the Sharad Pawar faction. Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), part of the MVA, has also put up a candidate here.

In the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates seat, sitting MLC Satish Chavan of the NCP led by Sunetra Pawar is in the fray. He faces Pratapsinh Patil of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate.

The Pune teachers seat is a particularly interesting contest. BJP's Kaustubh Gawde faces sitting Congress MLC Jayant Asgaonkar. The Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena has backed independent candidate Sachin Sanap against the BJP's official candidate, making it a three-cornered fight. Sanap is the OSD to Minister of State Uday Samant.

In the Amravati teachers seat, sitting Shiv Sena MLC Kiran Sarnaik faces Congress candidate Aditi Pohare and the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate. All eyes are now on the results, which will show which alliance has the upper hand.