Congress's Abhijit Wanjari wins Nagpur graduates' seat, defeating BJP's Sudhakar Kohale

Abhijit Wanjari, the Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate, has comprehensively defeated BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale in the Nagpur graduates' constituency election. After the result, Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal launched a sharp attack on the BJP.

Sapkal said the Congress had defeated the BJP for the second consecutive time even though Nagpur is home to the RSS headquarters and is the city of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. According to him, the Maha Vikas Aghadi won three of the five Legislative Council seats and thoroughly defeated the BJP-led Mahayuti. Sapkal said the BJP had power, money and all its strength, yet it lost.

Naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sapkal said he was so impatient that, even before the result, he had dismissed the Congress as a "zero". "In the end, the balloon of illusion has burst," Sapkal said, using these words in his sharp criticism of the Prime Minister.

With this win, the Congress has opened its account in the election to five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The Nagpur graduates' constituency contest was considered very close. Chief Minister Fadnavis's prestige was at stake in the election, and the BJP, including Fadnavis, had made it a matter of great prestige.

From the first round to the last, the contest between BJP candidate Kohale and Congress candidate Wanjari remained neck and neck. In the final stages Kohale had a lead of 4,700 votes, but Wanjari wiped out that lead, staged a strong comeback and won. On Wednesday night, Wanjari of the Congress managed to retain the Nagpur graduates' seat.

The fear that had spread in the BJP camp proved true. Kohale is reported to have conceded defeat. The Nagpur graduates' seat thus remained with the Congress.