Maharashtra MLC polls: Congress calls Abhijit Wanjari's Nagpur victory a win for democracy and the Constitution

The Congress has described its victory in the Nagpur Division Graduatesrsquo constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Council as a ldquovictory for democracy and the Constitutionrdquo after its candidate Abhijit Wanjari defeated the Bharatiya Janata Partyrsquos BJP Sudhakar Kohale by 3271 votesWanjari the sitting MLC secured 67231 votes against Kohalersquos 63960 retaining the seat for the Congress after a counting process that lasted more than 40 hours The result was declared in the early hours of ThursdayThe win marked the Congressrsquos second consecutive victory in the constituency which has traditionally been regarded as a BJP stronghold Nagpur is also home to the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS and is the political base of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin GadkariCongress targets BJP leadership after Nagpur winMaharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal welcomed the result describing the outcome as a setback for the BJPled alliance He said the CongressMaha Vikas Aghadi MVA victory challenged the BJPrsquos political position in the regionTaking to X Sapkal said In the Nagpur Graduates constituency Congress MVA candidate Abhijeet Wanjarri has inflicted a crushing defeat on the BJP candidate In the city of RSS headquarters Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari the Congress party has defeated the BJP for the second consecutive timeHe added Out of the 5 seats in the Legislative Council the Maha Vikas Aghadi has won three seats delivering a crushing blow to the BJP Mahayuti Despite having power money and all resources the BJP has suffered a defeatThe Congress used the result to highlight its continued presence in Nagpur despite the BJPrsquos organisational strength in the regionMVA wins three of five Legislative Council seatsThe Opposition MVA won three of the five seats contested in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections while the ruling Mahayuti secured the remaining two The BJP and Shiv Sena won one seat each while the Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar secured two seats through its candidates in the graduatesrsquo constituenciesMaharashtra Congress incharge Sirivella Prasad also welcomed Wanjarirsquos victory saying the public mandate could not be overcome through the use of power or moneyTaking to X Prasad said Maha Vikas Aghadi wins 3 of 5 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjaris victory in Nagpur the BJPs political stronghold sends a strong message Peoples mandate cannot be defeated by power or moneyHe added A victory for democracy the Constitution and the peoples voice I congratulate the leadership of the Maharashtra Congress all the leaders of the Nagpur Graduates Constituency and all party workers and our alliance partners on this achievementProlonged counting decides closely contested electionThe counting process began on Tuesday morning and continued for more than 40 hours Kohale had initially taken a lead of 4294 votes after the second round of firstpreference counting securing 60924 votes against Wanjarirsquos 56630Independent candidate Nitesh Karale received 24249 firstpreference votes As neither leading candidate reached the required quota the counting proceeded to secondpreference votes under the election rules Wanjari ultimately emerged victorious with a margin of 3271 votesWith inputs from IANS