Maha MLC polls: Voting underway for five seats; Mahayuti, MVA both assert wins
Mumbai, Oct 23 (IANS) Polling for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, comprising three graduate and two teacher constituencies, is currently underway on Friday with 182 candidates in the fray, and their political futures sealed in ballot boxes across 2,419 polling stations.
The counting is scheduled for October 27. The polling, which started at 8 a.m. and will continue till 4 p.m., is taking place in the Pune Teachers and Pune Graduate constituencies; Amravati Teacher Constituency; Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduate Constituencies, where the rebels have made the elections tough for both the ruling Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Union Minister of State Murlidhar Mohol cast his vote at Dindayal Upadhyaya School in Kothrud, Pune. Speaking to reporters after exercising his franchise, Mohol expressed firm confidence that the ruling Mahayuti coalition will secure victories across all five constituencies.
Mohol stated that graduate and teacher voters are educated and analytical. He noted that voters evaluate national progress, global developments, and the accelerated pace of state development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister/Deputy CMs leadership before casting their ballots.
Addressing comparisons with cooperative body elections (such as Gokul), Mohol emphasised that cooperative and legislative council polls operate under entirely different dynamics.
He reiterated full confidence in the victory of candidates such as Smita Jadhav and Kaustubh Gawde, noting that alliance-supporting voters will firmly back the coalition.
The Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil also said that the Mahayuti will win all five seats.
Expressing strong confidence in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ahead of the Legislative Council elections, the Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar predicted victories across all five seats, including the Nagpur Graduate constituency, both seats in Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Amravati. Levelling serious allegations over electoral integrity, Wadettiwar claimed that flawed voter lists are a critical issue and asserted that the BJP resorts to manipulation in voter rolls because it cannot win elections fairly.
The Pune graduate constituency records the highest participation base with approximately 3.88 lakh voters. The Amravati teacher constituency records the smallest base with approximately 35,000 voters.
To ensure ballot validity, voters were required to present valid identification documents, including Aadhaar cards, driving licenses, PAN cards, Indian passports, government or semi-government service ID cards, MP/MLA/MLC official IDs, educational institution service IDs, or original university degree/diploma certificates.
The election process in the Nagpur graduate constituency witnessed friction following allegations of discrepancies in the voter rolls. Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari and party leaders raised concerns over 8,744 duplicate voter entries across multiple polling booths, calling the situation a matter of serious concern.
Congress state chief spokesperson Atul Londhe alleged during a press conference that approximately 20,000 to 22,000 voter registrations were processed using a single mobile number (5432154321), and questioned the transparency of the verification process. A formal letter demanding an inquiry was submitted to the divisional commissioner by Congress leader Prafulla Goodhe.
Following complaints, election authorities at polling booths required voters with duplicate listings to execute a short written declaration confirming they were voting at only one designated location and would not cast a vote elsewhere.
–IANS
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