Nagpur graduates' seat: No one meets quota, Karale's second-preference votes to decide result

Counting for the Nagpur divisional graduates' constituency has reached a tight stage. A total of 1,65,909 valid votes were cast, but no candidate has so far met the quota needed to win.

The first-preference contest was seen to be directly between Congress's Abhijit Wanjari and BJP's Sudhakar Kohale. After two rounds of counting, Kohale leads with 60,124 votes, while Wanjari is second with 56,630.

The counting saw its share of ups and downs. In the first round, Wanjari took an unexpected lead, which caused unease in the BJP camp. In the second round, however, Kohale made a comeback by building a lead of about 4,000 votes, bringing relief to the BJP.

The biggest surprise of the election was Nitesh Karale Guruji, a rebel candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party. He polled 24,249 votes on his own, surprising everyone.

Besides Kohale, Wanjari and Karale, there were 35 other candidates in the field. Of these, 21 have been eliminated under the rules for receiving fewer votes. All the remaining candidates put together have got only about 7,000 votes.

Since no winner emerged from first-preference votes, the elimination process has now begun and second-preference votes are being counted. In this early count, Kohale has received 56 votes, Wanjari 63 and Karale 48.

Karale Guruji is still in the race. But when he is eliminated, the final outcome will hinge on whom the second preferences of his more than 24,000 voters favour. The new graduates' constituency legislator will be decided by these votes.

The BJP camp is hopeful, while the Congress is also staking a claim to these votes. All of Vidarbha is watching to see whom Karale's second preferences will help win.