Maharashtra MLC Polls: Why BJP Lost Nagpur, Pune Seats

Defeats in two high-profile constituencies have raised questions over candidate selection, rebels and coordination within the Mahayuti.

Mumbai, October 29, 2026: The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won only two of the five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections for graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) took the other three. The losses in Nagpur, the home city of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the headquarters of the RSS, and in the Pune Graduates’ constituency have drawn the most attention.

The results at a glance

Nagpur Graduates: Congress’s sitting MLC Abhijit Wanjari defeated the BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes, polling 67,231 to 63,960.
Pune Graduates: The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)’s Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated the BJP’s Dr Smita Jadhav.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates: NCP (SP)’s Pratapsinh Patil beat sitting NCP MLC Satish Chavan, 74,043 votes to 60,878. Chavan belongs to the NCP faction that is part of the Mahayuti.
Pune Teachers: The BJP’s Kaustubh Gawade won.
Amravati Teachers: Shinde Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik retained the seat against Congress’s Aditi Pohare.

Why Nagpur slipped away

Nagpur’s graduates’ constituency was long a BJP bastion, held by the party for close to six decades before Wanjari won it in 2020. The BJP went into this contest hoping to take it back, with Kohle, a former MLA considered close to Fadnavis, as its candidate. The margin of just over 3,000 votes shows how close it was. For a party with this much organisational strength in Nagpur, that is a bruising result.

The loss also stands out against the BJP’s strong performance in the January 2026 civic polls, when it won 102 of 151 seats in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Graduates’ constituencies have a very different electorate from municipal elections. Voters are registered graduates, and the contests are decided on voter registration drives and personal outreach rather than party wave.

Pune: a late candidate and an ally’s seat

The Pune Graduates’ loss raises sharper questions about candidate selection. The BJP took the seat from its Mahayuti ally NCP under a 3:1:1 seat-sharing formula, in which the BJP contests three seats and the NCP and Shiv Sena one each. The party then named Smita Jadhav, wife of the Pudhari Group chairman and editor Yogesh Jadhav. She joined the BJP only around the time her nomination was announced.

Several BJP aspirants had been preparing for the seat, and the name of Sharad Lad, son of sitting MLC Arun Lad, had been discussed. The party also faced the risk of rebels from the outset. During the campaign, the MVA’s Deshmukh-Jadhav, who had worked in the constituency for about a year and a half, criticised the late entry of a candidate fielded by the BJP.

Dissent and infighting inside the Mahayuti

The results have reopened tensions within the ruling alliance:

Pune Teachers: Shiv Sena leader Mangesh Chivte filed a nomination against the BJP’s Gawade before withdrawing. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena then backed independent candidate Sachin Sanap, who polled strongly but did not win.
Sambhajinagar: BJP rebels Sangeeta Shinde, Shekhar Bhoyar and Sumit Pawar contested alongside the official candidates.
Open recriminations: BJP Maharashtra chief spokesperson Navnath Ban said the Mahayuti could have won all five seats with better coordination, and argued that an ally should not undermine its partners to win a single seat. He also alleged that Minister Abdul Sattar campaigned against the NCP candidate in Sambhajinagar.

These are the BJP’s allegations. Shinde Sena’s response to them will be added to this report when available.

What it means for the Mahayuti

The MLC graduates’ and teachers’ polls involve a small, specialised electorate, so the results are not a measure of overall public mood. But they expose practical weaknesses: seat-sharing disputes, rebel candidates and uneven coordination between the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP. How the alliance handles the fallout will matter ahead of future contests.