Nagpur graduates' seat: Kohale and Wanjari in close fight, counting begins today

Results for the Legislative Council graduates' and teachers' constituencies are due today, October 27. Voting was held on Friday, October 23, and counting begins at 8 am today. The fate of 182 candidates for three graduates' seats and two teachers' seats is sealed in ballot boxes. The prestige of both the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi is at stake in the contests in Nagpur, Amravati, Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad).

All eyes are on Nagpur, the home district of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. For the Nagpur division graduates' seat, the BJP has fielded Sudhakar Kohale as its official candidate. The Congress has once again put its faith in Abhijit Wanjari.

The BJP saw an unprecedented rebellion this time. Senior party leaders managed to pacify it, and rebel candidate Anil Sole has given Kohale his full support. However, Sole did not withdraw his nomination, so his name remains on the ballot paper. The question is whether this will hurt the BJP. On the other side, Congress's Wanjari is likely to be set back by the Maha Vikas Aghadi's Nitesh Karale Master. This has made the contest extremely tight and a matter of prestige, and it will be clear in a few hours whose side will celebrate.

Counting for the Nagpur division will be held at the Mankapur Sports Complex. Starting at 8 am, valid and invalid votes will first be separated. Once the valid votes are determined, the winning quota will be fixed and announced. A candidate who reaches the quota in first-preference votes will be declared the winner. If no one does, second, third and later preference votes will be counted. This will continue until a candidate crosses the quota.

The counting method is as follows. The votes from each ballot box will be taken out, and the presiding officer of the polling station will tally the actual count of ballot papers against the number recorded in Form No. 16 (1). Votes from each box will also be made into bundles of 25, and the votes will not be unfolded while bundles are made. All the bundles will then be mixed in one large tub, so that all 1,65,541 votes are pooled together.

Each counting table will then be given 1,000 votes in bundles of 25. Nagpur has 84 tables, so 84,000 votes will come up for counting in the first round. At each table 1,000 votes will be opened and placed in the pigeon box bearing the name of the candidate who received the first preference. These are small cardboard boxes labelled with candidates' names. Invalid votes will be set aside during this process. In the second round, each of the 84 tables will again be given 1,000 votes and the process repeated. By the end of the second round, all invalid votes will have been separated and the winning quota will be fixed.

If a candidate reaches the quota within the first two rounds, they will be declared the winner with the Election Commission's permission. If no one reaches the quota on first-preference votes, an elimination round will begin. The candidate last on first preferences will be eliminated, and their votes will be transferred to the candidates marked as second preference on them. Candidates will be eliminated one by one in this way until someone reaches the quota.

Turnout on the Nagpur division graduates' seat was 64.76 per cent. Of 2,55,603 voters in all, 1,65,541 cast their votes. There are 38 candidates in the fray on this seat. District-wise turnout was: Nagpur 60.3 per cent, Bhandara 67.07, Gondia 71.53, Wardha 68.37, Chandrapur 72.59 and Gadchiroli 72.95 per cent.

BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale has claimed that his party will win the Nagpur division graduates' seat after today's counting. According to Kohale, the win will come on the strength of the effort put in for him during the campaign by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and the strength of the party organisation. He also said there was nothing to the Congress's claim of victory. Kohale said Congress leaders can see defeat ahead, which is why they have begun trading accusations among themselves.