The Congress failed to win any of the four Legislative Council seats in Karnataka as results were announced on Wednesday. The BJP retained three seats, while the JD(S) wrested the Bengaluru Teachers' constituency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked, "Guess how many seats Congress won?" following the party's poor performance.
JD(S) wrests Bengaluru Teachers' seat as BJP retains three in Karnataka; Modi takes a swipe at Congress over its tally in elections across 28 constituencies
The Congress suffered a setback in the biennial Legislative Council elections across four states, failing to win any of the four seats in Karnataka, where the opposition JD(S) wrested one constituency from the ruling party and the BJP retained three.
Results were announced on Wednesday for the elections to 28 Legislative Council constituencies in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, with counting continuing in some seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a swipe at the Congress over its performance, asking how many seats the party had won in the elections to 28 Legislative Council constituencies across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka.
"MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. Elections held using ballot papers. Guess how many seats Congress won?" Modi posted on X.
In Karnataka, the JD(S) wrested the Bengaluru Teachers' constituency from the Congress, while the BJP won the North-East Teachers', South-East Graduates' and West Graduates' constituencies, defeating Congress candidates.
Although the results will not affect the stability of the Congress government in Karnataka, the outcome is being viewed as a setback for the ruling party and a boost for the BJP-JD(S) opposition alliance ahead of the 2028 Assembly elections.
Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra described the NDA's victory as a rejection of the Congress government and a pointer to the 2028 Assembly polls.
The results were declared on Tuesday for the Bengaluru Teachers' and North-East Teachers' constituencies, while counting continued overnight in the other two seats, officials said on Wednesday.
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The Congress also suffered a setback in Maharashtra, where the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti was leading in three constituencies, while the Opposition NCP (SP) was ahead in two.
In the Amravati Teachers' constituency, Congress candidate Aditi Pohre was trailing Shiv Sena's Kiran Sarnaik, who led by 4,555 votes after 21 rounds of counting. Sarnaik had secured 10,672 votes, while Pohre had received 6,117.
BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale was leading by 4,265 votes in the Nagpur Graduates' constituency. In the Pune Teachers' constituency, BJP candidate Kaustubh Gawade was ahead after the 28th round of counting.
NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav was poised to win the Pune Graduates' constituency, while party candidate Pratapsinh Patil was leading against NCP's sitting MLC Satish Chavan in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates' constituency.
In Bihar, Jan Suraaj Party opened its account with Suresh Prasad Rai defeating sitting Congress MLC Madan Mohan Jha by 324 votes in the Darbhanga Teachers' constituency.
BJP candidate Narendra Prasad Singh won the Tirhut Teachers' constituency on Tuesday, defeating Independent candidate Bhushan Kumar Jha.
JD(U)'s Neeraj Kumar defeated the RJD candidate in the Patna Graduates' constituency, although the official result was yet to be declared.
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In the Patna Teachers' constituency, sitting BJP MLC Nawal Kishor Yadav lost to RJD's Sanjiv Kumar, while sitting MLC Afaq Ahmed was defeated by Independent candidate Rahul Raj in the Saran Teachers' constituency, sources said.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won five of the 11 Legislative Council seats, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) secured three, with counting continuing in the remaining constituencies.
The SP's Mansingh Yadav won the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' constituency, while BJP candidate Manvendra Pratap Singh (Guruji) won the Agra Graduates' seat.
The BJP retained the Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituency, where Hari Singh Dhillon defeated SP nominee Danish Akhtar by 17,676 votes. The party also won the Lucknow Teachers' seat, with Umesh Dwivedi defeating SP's Sushil Kumar by 6,992 votes.
The BJP won both the Teachers' and Graduates' constituencies in Meerut. In the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituency, BJP candidate Dhruv Kumar Tripathi was leading Independent rival Rajiv Yadav by 466 votes after the final round of counting.
The SP won the Varanasi Teachers' constituency through Lal Bihari Yadav and the Agra-Aligarh Teachers' constituency, where Akash Agrawal defeated BJP nominee Hari Kishore Tiwari.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav had earlier shared a video on X showing Agrawal wearing a torn kurta, with supporters alleging that he had been assaulted. Yadav urged the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and the President to take immediate cognisance of the matter.
SP candidates were also leading in the Varanasi and Lucknow Graduates' constituencies.
The elections were held on October 23 to six teachers' and five graduates' constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, four each in Bihar, two each in Karnataka, and three graduates' and two teachers' constituencies in Maharashtra.
Only graduate and teacher voters are eligible to vote in these elections, which are conducted using ballot papers rather than electronic voting machines.