Nagpur MLC result: Congress' Abhijeet Wanjari beats BJP in RSS turf, MVA wins 3 seats

Mumbai: Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjari was on Thursday declared the winner in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections from Nagpur after a keenly-watched vote counting exercise that stretched for more than 40 hours.

Wanjari defeated BJP's Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates' constituency seat, which has been a traditional stronghold of the saffron party.

The counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and concluded in the wee hours of Thursday.


Wanjari, a sitting MLC, secured 67,231 votes, while Kohale, a former MLA, got 63,960 votes.

It is a big setback for the BJP as it has lost in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who had campaigned extensively for Kohale.

Gadkari was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the Nagpur graduates' constituency for 24 years, from July 1990, to May 2014.

With the Congress nominee's victory, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has won three of the five MLC seats in the October 23 elections. The BJP-led ruling Mahayuti alliance got two seats.

Congress leaders lost no time in taunting BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis over their tweets indicating that the party had scored a duck in the polls.

Maharashtra Congress shared a screenshot of a deleted tweet by Fadnavis on social media, which said the grand old party got a "big fat zero" in the polls.

"By deleting the tweet, Fadnavis has once again preserved Savarkar's legacy! Even before the full results were in hand, in a show of firing a big arrow, Fadnavis tweeted. But that very arrow turned back and pierced straight into his chest! In the end, he was forced to delete the tweet," the state Congress said on X.

"Mr Fadnavis, scared already at this stage? This is just the trailer! In 2029, the people of Maharashtra will drop such a political bombshell on you that even this tweet of today will come back to haunt you! All the best, Mr. Fadnavis! Get ready for the next jolt," it added.

State Congress unit chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said the BJP nominee has been trounced in the Nagpur, which has RSS headquarters.

Mahayuti allies BJP and Shiv Sena won a seat each out of the five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies where polling was held on October 23.

The NCP (SP) won the Pune graduates constituency and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates' constituency. Both seats were held earlier by the undivided NCP before it split in 2023.

Shiv Sena's Kiran Sarnaik emerged victorious in the Amravati Teachers' constituency, while BJP nominee Kaustubh Gawade won the Pune Teachers' constituency. NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated BJP nominee Smita Jadhav to win the Pune Graduates constituency.

Sapkal said Modi mocked the Congress by saying that the party drew a blank in polls. "However, the bubble of illusion has burst in the end," he added.

NCP leader Praful Patel called for an immediate review of the party's priorities and organisational structure after its sole candidate lost the elections.

In the 78-member Legislative Council, the BJP is the largest party with 35 members, followed by the Shiv Sena with 12 and the NCP with 10. Among the opposition parties, the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have five MLCs each, while the NCP (SP) has two. The House also has four independent MLCs.