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Counting for the Amravati division graduates constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Council is still underway on Friday, more than 24 hours after the process began, as no candidate could secure the necessary quota of votes, an official said.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate Dhiraj Lingade is ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee and sitting MLC Ranjit Patil. But nobody from them has so far completed the necessary quota of 47,101 votes.
There were 23 candidates in the fray, of whom 17 have been eliminated as the counting of second preference votes is underway, the official said.
There are 94,200 votes, of which 8,387 were invalid, he said.
“Till 11 am, Lingade had bagged 43,929 votes, while BJP’s Patil secured 41,460,” the official added.
In a setback to the ruling BJP-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra, the Opposition MVA-backed candidates clinched two of the five Legislative Council seats, which were up for grabs in biennial elections from teachers and graduates segments.
The BJP managed to win the Konkan division teachers constituency, while Independent candidate Satyajit Tambe, whose rebellion rocked the state Congress ahead of polls, won the Nashik graduates constituency comfortably.
Voting for five Council seats – three teachers segments (falling in Nagpur, Konkan and Aurangabad divisions) and two graduates constituencies (Nashik and Amravati divisions) was held on January 30 and counting began on Thursday morning. Teachers and graduates fulfilling certain criteria and enrolled as voters formed the electoral college for these elections.
