Maharashtra MLC polls: Congress wins Nagpur graduates' constituency

Nagpur: Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari on Friday won the Nagpur division graduates' constituency election of the Maharashtra Legislative Council by defeating BJP's Sandip Joshi by a margin of 18,910 votes.

This is a big setback to the BJP, as it had held the seat for the last 58 years. Union minister Nitin Gadkari had also represented it for several years in the past.

Wanjari defeated his nearest rival Joshi by securing 61,701 votes, while the latter bagged 42,791 votes.

The counting for the votes had begun on Thursday and continued till Friday afternoon.

A total of 1,32,923 voters, out of more than two lakh registered ones, cast their votes for this seat. Voting was held in 322 polling booths spread across Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli,Chandrapur and Nagpur.

There were 19 candidates in the fray and the main contenders were the BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates.

Joshi is presently the Mayor of Nagpur city.

Till now, Nagpur division graduates' constituency was considered a stronghold of the BJP. Nagpur is the hometown of former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Wanjari was a senate member of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University for several years. His father late Govindrao Wanjari was a Congress MLA.