Congress's Abhijit Wanjari wins Nagpur graduates' seat, beats BJP's Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes

Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari has won the Legislative Council election from the Nagpur graduates' constituency. Counting first and second preference votes together, he got 67,231 votes. His closest rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Sudhakar Kohale, got 63,960, making the margin 3,271 votes. Returning officer and Divisional Commissioner Vijayalakshmi Bidari handed Wanjari the certificate of victory.

Counting began at 8 am on Tuesday, October 27, on 84 tables at the Divisional Sports Complex in Mankapur, Nagpur. It ran for more than 41 hours. Election observer Dr Harshdeep Kamble, Bidari, the assistant returning officers and collectors of all districts of the division, and the officers and staff deployed for counting were present.

In two rounds of first-preference counting, no candidate reached the quota of 75,438 votes needed to win. Second-preference votes were therefore counted, as the election procedure requires. Of 1,65,906 first-preference votes in the two rounds, 15,032 were invalid and 1,50,874 were valid. The quota was not reached after the second-preference count either. Wanjari, who had the most votes, 67,231, with first and second preferences combined, was then declared elected.

The Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the Nagpur division graduates' constituency election on September 22, and the notification was issued on September 29. Voting took place on October 23 from 8 am to 4 pm. Counting began at 8 am on October 27 and finished 41 hours later. The Commission has set October 31 as the deadline for completing the whole election process.

The count saw swings from the start, and Wanjari won at the last stage. On the strength of second-preference votes, he defeated Kohale by 3,271 votes. After the defeat, BJP state president Ravindra Chavan has reportedly moved into action mode. He is said to be taking stock of all districts of Nagpur and Pune and seeking answers from district presidents, MLAs and ministers.

Chavan is reported to be meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 2. He will also report to Shah on the stand taken by the Mahayuti allies, and place a full analysis of the defeat before him.

Nagpur is regarded as a BJP stronghold. Ten reasons have been listed for the party's defeat here. First, open factionalism in the Nagpur BJP showed up while the candidate was being chosen. Second, Anil Sole raised the flag of revolt together with Girish Vyas; the rebellion subsided, but the damage was done. Third, the BJP's traditional voters either stayed away from voting or showed their anger by invalidating their votes. Fourth, election management failed: the party gained first-preference votes but did not pay attention to second preferences.

Fifth, the second- and third-preference votes of smaller parties and their candidates were ignored. Sixth, Wanjari kept in touch with the other candidates and sought their second- and third-preference votes, which proved decisive. Seventh, the 24,249 votes polled by Nitesh Karale upset the calculations of both the BJP and Congress. Eighth, Karale got three and a half times as many votes as last time, which points to discontent with the BJP. Ninth, Karale's second-preference votes going to Wanjari proved decisive in the end. Tenth, the BJP did not field a Brahmin candidate, which showed up as anger among Brahmin voters, and murmurs in BJP and Sangh circles turned up in the ballot box.