Pune: Mahayuti and MVA won two seats each across the five graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies in Maharashtra legislative council elections, while the Nagpur graduates’ constituency emerged as the most dramatic contest, with the result hanging in the balance at the time of going to the press even though Congress claimed victory.The overall results exposed fault lines within the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP Mahayuti, which failed to function as a cohesive alliance across the five constituencies. While BJP secured one seat, its partner Sena bagged another and NCP didn’t win any. Despite entering the polls as favourites, Mahayuti partners were mired in disagreements over seat-sharing, creating openings that Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) successfully exploited to secure two key contests.In a cliffhanger at Nagpur’s Mankapur Sports Complex, BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale and Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjarri traded leads through the day as counting stretched beyond 40 hours. Wanjarri surged ahead in the initial rounds before Kohale clawed his way back. With successive rounds narrowing the gap, both camps remained on edge as the final count progressed.The contest carried significance beyond a single seat. For BJP, it was a chance to reclaim a constituency it had dominated since the Jan Sangh era. For Congress, retaining the seat would reinforce its 2020 breakthrough, when Wanjarri defeated BJP’s Sandip Joshi. The battle was widely seen as a test of organisational strength in a region long regarded as a BJP bastion.Even before the final result, Kohale signalled acceptance of a possible defeat. Questioning the effectiveness of the voting process in graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, he said, “Going by the trends in the last few rounds, it appears that the result may tilt in favour of the Congress candidate. Whatever the result, I am ready to accept it and will continue to carry out whatever responsibilities my party assigns to me.”Maharashtra Congress took a dig at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over the Nagpur MLC seat, claiming that he had to delete a post from his own X account, in which he had stated that the Congress had won “zero” seats. “Devendraji posted a message in such haste that he later had to delete it. But remember, you can delete a tweet, not the truth,” the state Congress said in a post on its official X account.Cracks within partners cost MahayutiAmong Mahayuti’s victories, BJP’s Kaustubh Gawade won the Pune teachers’ constituency, defeating Shiv Sena rebel Sachin Sanap. In Amravati teachers’ constituency, Shiv Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik overcame Congress candidate Aditi Pohare and Sena rebel Shrikant Deshpande.The MVA’s victories came through NCP (SP). Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav won the Pune graduates’ seat by defeating BJP’s Smita Jadhav, while Pratapsinh Patil unseated three-term MLC Satish Chavan in the Aurangabad graduates’ constituency.Political analyst Prakash Pawar said the outcome reflected BJP’s miscalculation during seat-sharing talks. “The election results revealed that even though BJP remains the most dominant party in the state, it has yet to secure organic support across all sections of society. The party tried to use its dominance to dictate seat-sharing arrangements and contest the polls without the support of its alliance partners but failed to garner sufficient support. It will have to rework its strategy in the state before facing the next elections,” he said.Senior BJP leader and cabinet minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule rejected suggestions that the results represented a setback. “The five seats were previously held by opposition parties, and we had no seats. Unlike the opposition parties, whenever we face a setback, we introspect and rework our strategy to win next time,” he said.Observers pointed particularly to western Maharashtra, where Mahayuti’s seat-sharing formula left NCP with no constituency to contest in the Pune division. “NCP has traditionally been strong there, but Mahayuti gave Sunetra Pawar’s NCP no seats in the Pune division, with both constituencies going to BJP. As a result, NCP workers did not campaign actively for Mahayuti candidates and were disappointed that their party did not get a ticket,” political analyst Pawar said.Shiv Sena workers were also conspicuously absent from BJP’s Pune campaign. Chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Sena even backed rebel candidates contesting against BJP-supported nominees in the teachers’ constituency.Former MLA and Shiv Sena’s Pune chief Ravindra Dhangekar raised concerns over the role of money in the elections. “We suspect that money power played a dominant role in the elections, which is quite unfortunate. In elections to graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, we expect deserving candidates to be given tickets. Unfortunately, political parties have taken centre stage instead of the candidates, which is wrong,” he said.Boost for NCP (SP), introspection for alliesNCP (SP) state president Shashikant Shinde described the outcome as a morale booster. “The election results will be a turning point for our party, as they will send positive signals to our party workers ahead of the next elections. The results also underline the fact that when qualified candidates are nominated, voters support them,” he said.At the same time, he admitted that better coordination within the opposition alliance could have yielded more victories. “We should have started coordinating with our alliance partners much earlier for these elections, and we could have won more seats. The lack of coordination has cost us some seats,” he said.State Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said his party had fought hard in the constituencies it contested and flagged the issue of invalid votes. “Our party contested three seats and made every effort to win. The counting process revealed that a large number of votes were declared invalid, which is a matter of concern,” he said.‘Wake-up call’ for NCP: Praful PatelThe verdict also triggered soul-searching within NCP after the defeat of senior leader Satish Chavan in the Aurangabad graduates’ constituency.NCP working president Praful Patel termed the result a warning signal and called for sweeping organisational reforms. In a social media post, Patel said: “The election results serve as a definitive wake-up call. The time has come for urgent introspection to rebuild trust, realign our priorities and fix our organisational structure. To regain people’s trust, reset the party’s priorities and bring about organisational reforms, an immediate and rigorous self-examination will be necessary.”(With inputs from Vaibhav Ganjapure & Abhishek Choudhari in Nagpur)
