MVA holds Mahayuti to three of five seats in Legislative Council graduate, teacher polls

Counting of votes in the Legislative Council elections from the graduates' and teachers' constituencies has been under way since yesterday. A one-sided win for the Mahayuti had been predicted, and its leaders had made preparations for it, creating the impression that the alliance would dominate the state. The trends so far suggest that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has halted the Mahayuti's winning run.

The election was held for five seats. According to trends so far, the Mahayuti appears set to win three and the MVA two. The Mahayuti's dream of winning every seat appears to be fading, and this is being described as a major setback for the alliance. Internal factionalism appears to have hurt it.

In Marathwada, MVA candidate Pratapsingh Patil is leading and Mahayuti candidate Satish Chavan is trailing. Patil has polled 73,931 votes, Chavan 60,768 and Raviraj Sabale 19,835, leaving Patil ahead by 13,163 votes. Shinde Sena leader Abdul Sattar had openly campaigned for the MVA candidate, and Chavan appears to have suffered for it.

In the Nagpur graduates' constituency, the Mahayuti's Sudhakar Kohale is leading with 60,924 votes. The MVA's Abhijit Wanjari has 56,630 and independent candidate Nitesh Karale has 24,249. Although Kohale leads on first-preference votes, Karale had asked his supporters to give their second preference to Wanjari. It remains to be seen whether the second-preference count changes the picture or the present position holds.

In the Amravati teachers' constituency, Kiran Sarnaik of the Shinde faction is likely to win. He has 8,575 votes, Congress's Aditi Pohare 4,925 and independent candidate Shrikant Deshpande 4,921. Sarnaik's victory is therefore being considered certain.

In the Pune teachers' constituency, the BJP is leading. BJP's Kaustubh Gavde has 17,600 votes, the Shinde faction's Sachin Sanap 11,328 and Congress's Jayant Asgaonkar 8,350. The BJP appears to be retaining Pune.

In the Pune graduates' constituency, however, Harshada Deshmukh Jadhav of the Sharad Pawar faction has polled 1,12,400 votes. The BJP's Smita Jadhav has 1,02,000 votes and Sunil Modi of the Uddhav Thackeray faction has 3,066. The Sharad Pawar faction's candidate is ahead in this constituency.