Counting on for five Council seats as rebels and independents cloud Mahayuti-MVA fight

Counting of votes began at 8 am on Tuesday, 27 October, for five seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Results are expected for the graduates' constituencies of Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad), while the counts for the Pune and Amravati teachers' seats are also continuing. Officials say the declarations should come by afternoon, though the exact timing will depend on how counting proceeds.

The race is shaping up as a close one between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The Mahayuti is made up of the BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sunetra Pawar. The MVA consists of the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Polling took place on 23 October, and overall turnout was 72.96 per cent. The five seats are part of the 78-member Council, and the terms of the present members from them run out on 6 December 2026, which is why the election was needed. The five constituencies together have 10,68,072 voters, and 182 candidates are contesting.

Turnout varied sharply. Teachers voted in larger numbers than graduates. Amravati Teachers recorded the highest at 92.25 per cent, followed by Pune Teachers at 85.86 per cent. Among the graduates' seats, Nagpur stood at 64.82 per cent, Pune at 62.76 per cent and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar at 59.12 per cent, the lowest of the five.

Within the Mahayuti, the seats were divided in a 3:1:1 formula. The BJP took Pune Graduates, Pune Teachers and Nagpur Graduates. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates went to the NCP faction led by Sunetra Pawar, and Amravati Teachers to the Shinde Sena. Despite the arrangement, resentment and rebellion among the allies have kept the political arithmetic uncertain. Both alliances face rebels and independents from their own camps.

On the Pune teachers' seat, the BJP's Kaustubh Gawade is up against the Congress's sitting member Jayant Asgaonkar. The Shinde Sena has backed independent Sachin Sanap, who is the officer on special duty to Minister of State Uday Samant, against the BJP's official nominee. That has made it a three-cornered contest, and in Pune there has been talk that rebels opposing the BJP enjoy Shinde faction support.

In Amravati, the Shiv Sena's sitting member Kiran Sarnaik is challenged by the Congress's Aditi Pohare and a Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate.

The Nagpur graduates' seat is a direct fight between the Congress's sitting member Abhijit Wanjari and the BJP's Sudhakar Kohale. BJP rebel Anil Sole announced that he was pulling out and supporting Kohale, but the deadline for withdrawal had already passed, so his name remains on the ballot.

In Pune graduates, the BJP's Smita Jadhav faces Harshada Deshmukh of the Sharad Pawar faction. Although it belongs to the MVA, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has put up its own candidate as well. In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Satish Chavan, the sitting member from Sunetra Pawar's NCP, faces Pratapsinh Patil of the Sharadchandra Pawar party and a Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate.

The results will show how far local issues, candidates' standing and dissatisfaction inside the parties swayed voters, and which rebellions hurt each alliance most.