Congress leader Abhijeet Wanjari retains the Nagpur Graduates’ constituency, defeating BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes. (Img: X)
Nagpur: Congress has delivered a significant political setback to the BJP in Nagpur, the home turf of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari defeated BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes after more than 40 hours of counting to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency. The result strengthened the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s performance in the October 23 Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, with the Congress victory highlighting the BJP’s electoral vulnerability in a constituency long regarded as its stronghold.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Legislative Council election results have delivered a political jolt to the BJP, with Congress leader and sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari retaining the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency after an intensely contested counting process that lasted more than 40 hours.
Wanjari secured 67,231 votes, defeating BJP candidate and former MLA Sudhakar Kohale, who received 63,960 votes. The winning margin of 3,271 votes makes the outcome particularly significant because Nagpur has traditionally been a stronghold of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Counting began on Tuesday morning and concluded in the early hours of Thursday. The contest remained closely watched as the candidates exchanged leads during the counting process, with the final outcome emerging only after the preference-based counting rounds.
Kohale had initially established an advantage. After the second round of counting on Wednesday, he was ahead by 4,294 votes, with 60,924 first-preference votes against Wanjari’s 56,630. Independent candidate Nitesh Karale received 24,249 votes.
As no candidate secured the required quota through first-preference votes, the counting proceeded to subsequent preference rounds. Wanjari eventually overtook Kohale during the elimination process, securing a decisive victory and retaining his Legislative Council seat.
The result carries considerable political significance for the BJP because Nagpur is the home city of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Both leaders had campaigned extensively for Kohale, making the defeat a setback for the party’s local political machinery.
Gadkari represented the Nagpur graduates’ constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Council for nearly 24 years, from July 1990 to May 2014. The seat’s long association with prominent BJP leaders has made Wanjari’s victory an important development in the state’s political landscape.
Wanjari had also defeated BJP candidate Sandip Joshi in the previous election, reinforcing Congress’s hold on the constituency.
The opposition was quick to highlight the political implications of the result. Maharashtra Congress leaders criticised the BJP leadership after earlier social media remarks suggested that Congress had failed to win any seats in the elections.
The state Congress unit circulated a screenshot of a subsequently deleted post attributed to Fadnavis and used the reversal in Nagpur to challenge the BJP’s electoral narrative. Congress leaders argued that premature claims of a clean sweep had been undermined by the final results.
State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal also pointed to the BJP candidate’s defeat in Nagpur, a city closely associated with the RSS and senior BJP leadership. The result has provided the opposition with fresh ammunition ahead of the next major electoral contests in Maharashtra.
The five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies that went to the polls on October 23 produced a mixed outcome for the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
The MVA secured three seats overall, while the BJP-led Mahayuti won two. Congress retained Nagpur, while the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won the Pune Graduates’ and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates’ constituencies. Both seats had previously been held by the undivided NCP before the party split in 2023.
Within the ruling alliance, BJP candidate Kaustubh Gawade won the Pune Teachers’ constituency, while Shiv Sena candidate Kiran Sarnaik emerged victorious in the Amravati Teachers’ constituency. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP failed to secure a victory in the five-seat contest, prompting senior party leader Praful Patel to call for a review of the organisation’s priorities and structure. The results also brought the ruling alliance’s internal coordination and seat-sharing arrangements under scrutiny, particularly as the opposition managed to secure three victories.
In Maharashtra’s 78-member Legislative Council, the BJP remains the largest party with 35 members, followed by the Shiv Sena with 12 and the NCP with 10. Among opposition parties, the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have five members each, while the NCP (SP) has two. The House also includes four independent members.
The Nagpur verdict has therefore become more than a constituency-level result. It has emerged as a significant political talking point, with Congress seeking to turn its victory into a broader narrative of opposition resurgence and the BJP facing renewed questions over its performance in a key home-state stronghold.
