Story so far: Elections to five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council were held on Friday (October 23, 2026), as the ruling Mahayuti and Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi faced off in the three Graduates’ and two Teachers’ constituencies from the 78-member council.
An overall turnout of 85.87% was recorded on Friday (October 23, 2026) in the Pune Teachers’ constituency, while the figure was 62.78% in the Graduates’ constituency, officials said. According to poll officials, the Pune Graduates’ constituency has 3,88,019 voters, of whom 2,43,611 voted. The Pune Teachers’ constituency has 61,940 voters, with 53,185 exercising their franchise.
It was a test for Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on his home ground.
Counting of votes is scheduled for October 27. The election process will be completed by October 31.
What is the political significance of the Legislative Council polls in Maharashtra?
Elections to five Teachers’ and Graduates’ Constituencies in the Maharashtra Legislative Council were held on October 23. The process was marred by rebellions, internal dissent and strains within the ruling alliance of Mahayuti. Alliance partners Shiv Sena and BJP came to loggerheads, while NCP expressed discontent with the seat sharing. Even the Maha Vikas Aghadi faced its own share of differences. But the defining battle among the five seats was for the seat of Nagpur.
The BJP had to fight several obstacles in a bid to try to wrestle the seat from Congress. Historically, the party had guarded the seat for 58 years before losing it to the Congress last time, in 2020. This time, the tide of internal rebellion, the challenges from outside, will test Devendra Fadnavis’ leadership skills. Will the party be able to regain its lost fortune in its former bastion? And what do these elections mean for the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi? Who is set to gain and who has much at stake? Vinaya Deshpande Pandit explains.
For which constituencies were the recent polls held?
In September 2026, the Election Commission of India announced biennial polls for five of the 78 Maharashtra Legislative Council seats. The polls were held on October 23, 2026, for five Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies across the Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur and Amravati divisions. They included the Aurangabad Division Graduates’ constituency, Pune Division Graduates’ constituency, Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency, Amravati Division Teachers’ and Pune Division Teachers’ constituencies.
Voting was held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 23. Counting is scheduled on October 27.
The sitting members from these constituencies are Satish Chavan from Aurangabad Division Graduates’, Arun Lad from Pune Division Graduates’, Abhijit Wanjarri from Nagpur Division Graduates’, Kiran Sarnaik from Amravati Division Teachers’ and Jayant Asgaonkar from Pune Division Teachers’. Their terms are going to expire in December 2026.
A total of 1,068,072 voters were registered across 2,419 polling stations for these five seats.
What happened during nomination and seat distribution?
The nomination and seat distribution process for the election was marred by internal dissent, rebellions and squabbles between the alliance partners. It also led to expulsions from within the parties, and public drama by unhappy rebels. In the seat distribution, the BJP decided to fight on three seats, Shiv Sena on one and NCP on one.
The NCP expressed unhappiness at being denied the Pune graduates’ constituency. That was not the only issue. Pune also saw a full-blown battle between the BJP and Shiv Sena on the Pune teachers’ seat. The BJP fielded Kaustubh Gawde against the Congress’ Jayant Asgaonkar. But Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde defied the BJP and openly backed independent candidate Sachin Sanap. The party threw its might behind the independent candidate to give a fight to the BJP candidate. Publicly, both Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde downplayed the tussle, saying that the Mahayuti will win seats in this election.
In Amravati Teachers’ constituency, Shiv Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik was the official Mahayuti candidate. This led to internal dissent in the BJP. Three BJP rebels filed nominations as independents. The party had to expel all three of them. Chandrakant Bhoyar, Sunil Pawar and Sangeeta Shinde will remain expelled from the party for six years.
In the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Shiv Sena (UBT) fielded Dattatray Lahane against the Congress candidate.
Though Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates’ constituency was allocated to NCP, the Shiv Sena cadres refused to campaign for the alliance partner. Sena leader and former minister Abdul Sattar publicly said that the party had always worked against the NCP and that there was no reason for it to change this time.
What happened in Nagpur and why is the seat important?
Amid the trouble on all the seats, all eyes were on Nagpur, considered the bastion of the BJP. For the party itself, this graduates’ constituency is a fight of prestige. It is a seat which the party had held for 58 years, since its Jan Sangh days. It was the seat from where CM’s father Gangadharrao Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had fought and won. It was an embarrassing moment for the party to lose the seat in the year 2020 to Congress. That was when CM Fadnavis’ close associate Sandeep Joshi had fallen against Congress’ Abhijeet Wanjari. Mr Wanjari is the sitting MLC who has been renominated by the Congress. The BJP pulled all stops this time to give a tough fight to him.
The biggest challenge was internal when BJP’s former MLC and senior leader Anil Sole raised the flag of rebellion after the party gave nomination to Sudhakar Kohale. Several efforts of placating Mr Sole by the senior BJP leadership went to waste till Mr Fadnavis intervened and requested him to pull out of the race. Mr Sole publicly expressed displeasure at the senior, loyal party leaders being undermined for new faces. Mr Fadnavis gave an assurance of inclusion of the old hands. After this, Mr Sole withdrew from the race, clearing the path for Sudhakar Kohale as the BJP candidate.
How did the election impact the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi?
It led to disgruntlement among the alliance partners where parties across the ruling and opposition alliances gave candidates against each other. The fragile unity of alliances was seen during these elections too. Each party tried to downplay the differences though, adding that these elections were seen as an opportunity of strengthening their own field presence.
How will it affect the strength of the alliance partners in the Legislative Council?
Maharashtra Legislative Council consists of 78 members. Of them, 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.
If we look at the battle of alliances though, the Mahayuti is likely to gain more than it has to lose. The stakes are high for the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi, which has fought to defend three of the five seats. Congress has two MLCs in Nagpur graduates constituency and Pune teachers’ constituency. The sitting MLC from Pune graduates constituency belongs to NCP SP. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’s sitting MLC belongs to ruling NCP. Though Amravati sitting MLC was voted to power as an independent, Kiran Sarnaik later joined Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
Published – October 24, 2026 01:57 pm IST
