Written by: Express Web Desk3 min readUpdated: Oct 29, 2026 07:58 AM ISTCongress’s Abhijeet Wanjari retained the Nagpur Division Graduates’ constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Thursday, reported news agency PTI. He defeated BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes.Vote counting for the seat began on Tuesday morning and ended in the early hours of Thursday, running for more than 40 hours.The sitting MLC polled 67,231 votes against former MLA Kohale’s 63,960.The result dealt a blow to the BJP in a constituency long regarded as its stronghold. Nagpur is the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, both of whom campaigned extensively for Kohale. Gadkari represented the graduates’ constituency in the Legislative Council for 24 years, from July 1990 to May 2014.Wanjari’s victory took the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s tally to three of the five Council seats where elections were held on October 23. The ruling Mahayuti alliance secured the remaining two, with the BJP and Shiv Sena winning one each.The NCP (SP) won the Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates’ constituencies. Both seats had previously been held by the undivided NCP before its split in 2023. In Pune, NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated the BJP’s Smita Jadhav.Shiv Sena candidate Kiran Sarnaik won the Amravati Teachers’ constituency, while the BJP’s Kaustubh Gawade secured the Pune Teachers’ seat.Story continues below this adCongress leaders seized on the Nagpur result to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Fadnavis over their earlier social media posts suggesting that the party had failed to win any seats.The Maharashtra Congress shared a screenshot of a deleted Fadnavis post that said the party had scored a “big fat zero” in the elections. In the response on X, the state Congress accused Fadnavis of celebrating before all the results were declared. Invoking Savarkar, the Congress mocked Fadnavis for deleting the post and said the CM’s attack ahead of time had backfired.ट्विट डिलीट करून फडणवीसांनी पुन्हा एकदा सावरकरांचा वारसा जपला!संपूर्ण निकाल हाती येण्याआधीच मोठा तीर मारल्याच्या आविर्भावात फडणवीसांनी ट्विट केलं. पण तोच तीर उलटला आणि थेट त्यांच्या छातीत घुसला! अखेर नामुष्की ओढवून घेत ट्विट डिलीट करण्याची वेळ आली.फडणवीसजी, एवढ्यातच घाबरलात? हा तर फक्त ट्रेलर आहे!२०२९ मध्ये महाराष्ट्राची जनता तुमचा असा काही राजकीय कंडका पाडेल की, आजचं हे ट्विटही तुम्हाला आठवेल!All the best, फडणवीसजी! पुढच्या झटक्यासाठी तयार राहा.@Dev_Fadnavis— Maharashtra Congress (@INCMaharashtra) October 28, 2026The party also said the outcome was a preview of 2029, warning Fadnavis that Maharashtra’s voters would deliver another blow to the BJP and that his post would return to haunt him.Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal highlighted the BJP’s defeat in Nagpur, where the RSS has its headquarters. He also accused Modi of mocking the Congress over its supposed failure to open its account, saying the final outcome had burst that illusion.Meanwhile, NCP leader Praful Patel sought an immediate review of his party’s priorities and organisational structure after its only candidate in the elections lost.Story continues below this adThe BJP remains the largest party in the 78-member Maharashtra Legislative Council with 35 members. Shiv Sena has 12 MLCs and the NCP has 10. On the opposition benches, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have five members each, while the NCP (SP) has two. The Council also includes four independent members.