Konkan Teachers’ constituency saw the highest voter turnout of 91.02 per cent, while the Nashik division graduate seat saw the lowest turnout of 49.28 per cent in the elections held on Monday for five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The Eknath Shinde government took office in June.
The contest for the biennial election to the upper house of the state legislature was primarily between candidates supported by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena (Balasaheb) alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which included the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The 6-year term of five council members – three from teachers and two from graduate constituencies – expires on February 7 and the vote was held to fill upcoming vacancies. The counting of votes will take place on February 2.
Teachers and graduates who fulfilled certain criteria and were enrolled as voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in these elections.
Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Deshpande said 49.28 per cent polling was recorded in Nashik division graduate constituency, while 49.67 per cent polling was recorded in Amravati division graduate seat.
Deshpande said 86 per cent, 86.23 per cent and 91.02 per cent polling was recorded in teacher constituencies of Aurangabad, Nagpur and Konkan divisions respectively.
All eyes are on the Nashik Division Graduates seat, where the Congress saw a pre-poll rebellion. Three-time MLC Sudhir Tambe was the official Congress candidate from the seat, but did not file his nomination papers. As he opted out of the race, his son Satyajit Tambe entered the fray as an independent. Later Congress suspended both.
After casting his vote, Satyajit Tambe claimed that his victory is a foregone conclusion and what remains to be seen is the margin of victory.
Differences had arisen in the MVA regarding the elections. Earlier this month, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the MLC elections clearly showed the confusion in the opposition faction. Later, the MVA leaders sat together and ironed out the differences.
The MVA has fielded Shubhangi Patil (Independent) in Nashik Graduates’ constituency, Balram Patil (Independent) in Konkan Teachers’ seat, Vikram Kale (NCP) in Aurangabad Teachers’ constituency, Sudhakar Adable (Independent) in Nagpur Teachers’ constituency and Dheeraj Lingade in Amravati Graduates’ seat. (Congress).
The BJP has fielded Ranjit Patil from the Amravati graduate seat and Nagorao Ganar, Dhyaneshwar Mhatre and Kiran Patil from the Nagpur, Konkan and Aurangabad teachers’ constituencies, respectively.
In Nashik Division graduate constituency, out of 2,62,678 eligible voters, 1,29,456 exercised their franchise. Assistant Electoral Officer Ramesh Kale said that polling was peaceful at 338 polling stations in the division.
The polling percentage in Nashik district was 45.85 percent, while it was 50.40 percent in Ahmednagar district, 50.50 percent in Dhule district, 51.44 percent in Jalgaon district and 49.61 percent in Nandurbar district. All the districts are part of Nashik Division.
In Aurangabad teachers’ constituency, Osmanabad recorded the highest polling percentage of 92.38 per cent, followed by Hingoli at 91.27 per cent, an official said. The main contest on this seat was between MVA-backed candidate and sitting MLC Vikram Kale and BJP’s Kiran Patil.
At some places, voters complained that they had to stand in queues for hours due to the limited number of polling stations in Latur city.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)