In setback to BJP, Congress wins Nagpur MLC seat

Nagpur, Oct 29 (PTI): In a nail-biting contest, Congress candidate and sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari defeated his closest rival of the BJP by 3,271 votes to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency seat.

The counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and concluded in the wee hours of Thursday.

The Congress had fielded sitting MLC Wanjari who secured 67,231 votes. The BJP had fielded former MLA Sudhakar Kohale, who secured 63,960 votes.

It is a big setback for the BJP as it has lost in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who had campaigned extensively for Kohale.

Kohale was leading his Congress rival by 4,294 votes after the second round of counting on Wednesday.

After round two of the counting with reference to first preference votes, Kohale had polled 60,924 votes while Wanjari secured 56,630. Independent candidate Nitesh Karale received 24,249 votes.

However, as no candidate secured the required quota of votes, the counting went into the round of second preference votes.

In the elimination rounds, Wanjari secured 67,231 votes while Kohale secured 63,960 votes, a senior poll official told PTI.

The Nagpur Division Graduate constituency had been long represented by Union Minister Gadkari who was the MLC for several terms.

Wanjari had in the last election defeated BJP candidate Sandip Joshi. PTI CLS GSP GSP

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