Maharashtra MLC polls: Congress winner Wanjari says Nagpur seat no longer BJP stronghold

Abhijeet Wanjari defeated his close rival, BJP candidate and former MLA Sudhakar Kohale, by 3,271 votes to retain the seat, a traditional stronghold of the saffron party.

Congress MLC Abhijeet Wanjari on Thursday said the Nagpur Division Graduates' Constituency was no longer a BJP stronghold but had become a Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bastion after he retained the seat in a closely contested election.

Earlier in the day, Wanjari was declared the winner in the Council elections following a keenly watched vote-counting exercise that stretched for over 40 hours. Wanjari defeated his close rival, BJP candidate and former MLA Sudhakar Kohale, by 3,271 votes to retain the seat, a traditional stronghold of the saffron party.

Wanjari secured 67,231 votes, while Kohale polled 63,960.

Speaking to PTI Videos at his residence after his victory, Wanjari said elections to graduates' constituencies were different from other contests, as the voters were educated and understood the kind of work expected from their elected representatives in the Legislative Council.

He said voters were aware of the work the Congress had done over the past six years, and the outcome reflected the results of those efforts. "We intend to carry out similar programmes over the next six years as well," he said.

Asked about the BJP's extensive campaign and the fact that Nagpur is home to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and the RSS headquarters, Wanjari said the BJP had focused its campaign on him rather than its own candidate.

"If you analyse the entire election, you will see that the BJP candidate and the party tried to track me. Wherever I went, they tried to follow me and hold meetings with the same segments of voters I was engaging with," he said.

.BJP, NCP (SP) win two seats each in Maharashtra MLC polls.

The Congress leader claimed that the BJP fought the entire election around him. They did not focus on whether they had completed registrations or enrolments, nor did they have that information, he said.

"Several BJP leaders claimed they had registered lakhs of graduates, but those claims were entirely false. We, on the other hand, never made our numbers public or shared them with the press. Our focus was on our voters, and that helped us win the election," Wanjari said.

He said the constituency was no longer a BJP stronghold, adding that the Congress had repeated its historic victory from the previous election.

Fadnavis and Gadkari had campaigned extensively for Kohale. Gadkari was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the Nagpur Graduates' constituency for 24 years, from July 1990 to May 2014.

"Through this victory, we have established that whenever graduates' constituency elections are held here, whether under the banner of the Maha Vikas Aghadi or the Congress, our candidates will be elected. This is now our bastion," he said.

The Mahayuti allies, the BJP and Shiv Sena, won one seat each in the five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies, while the MVA, comprising the Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), bagged the remaining three.

Polling for the Pune Graduates', Nagpur Graduates', Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates', Pune Teachers' and Amravati Teachers' constituencies took place on October 23, recording a voter turnout of 72.96 per cent, as per officials. The results were declared on October 28-29.