Independent Nitesh Karale expects 40,000-45,000 votes in first round of Nagpur graduates' count

Independent candidate Nitesh Karale, known as Guruji, has expressed full confidence of victory in the Nagpur graduates' constituency election. He says he will get 40,000 to 45,000 votes in the first round of counting alone and will win by a big margin in the end.

According to Karale, people are angry with the BJP. He says that if a BJP legislator is sent to the House, that person will not be able to raise people's questions by going against Devabhau. Karale also said BJP people themselves have said as much openly.

He also attacked the Congress candidate directly. Karale says the Congress candidate was a legislator for six years but did not raise a single question of students. In his words, the candidate "did not break even a straw worth a cowrie". For this reason, he believes graduate voters will lean towards him this time.

Karale hopes that second-preference votes could also help his march to victory. He also suggested that the result could be a surprise, different from what anyone expects.

On the counting figures, by Karale's reckoning 84,000 votes are to be counted in the first round. He claims that 40,000 to 45,000 of these will go to him alone. By this calculation, about 50 per cent of voters will have backed him, he says, and he has voiced his confidence of victory on the strength of this claim.

The contest in this election is considered a close one between the BJP and the Congress. The question, therefore, is whether independent Nitesh Karale's gamble will prove a game changer. He said: "I will take 40,000 to 45,000 votes in the first round and I will win by big margins, I am confident of it."

For now, all of this is Karale's own claim. Whose claim proves right will be clear only at the end of the result. Until then, all eyes will remain on the counting in the Nagpur graduates' constituency, as Karale himself has raised the possibility of a surprise turn in the result.