Graduate voters across Marathwada have replaced the man who represented them in the Legislative Council since 2008. Dr Pratapsinh Patil of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate, won the Marathwada graduates’ constituency, defeating sitting MLC Satish Chavan of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, who had the backing of the ruling Mahayuti. Counting in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar began on October 27 and ran for two days before divisional commissioner G Shrikant, the returning officer, declared the result.
In the final round, Patil polled 85,876 votes to Chavan’s 67,752, a margin of 18,124, according to Saam TV’s report of the declared figures. News18 Marathi, reporting before the last transfers were complete, put the gap at about 15,000.
A win below the 88,558-vote quota
Council graduate seats use a preferential ballot. Voters rank candidates, and a winner needs a quota of valid votes; when nobody reaches it, the lowest-placed candidates drop out one by one and their ballots move to the next preference marked. In Marathwada the quota stood at 88,558. Patil led on first preferences, 73,931 to Chavan’s 60,768 by Saam TV’s count, and stayed ahead through every elimination, but neither man crossed the quota. News18 Marathi reports that the returning officer declared Patil elected as the candidate ahead once the count was exhausted.
The field held 41 candidates, Saam TV reports. Independent Raviraj Savale-Patil, who told News18 Marathi he campaigned for only 28 days with no party behind him, came third with close to 20,000 votes. He has also claimed that around 16,000 ballots were rejected as invalid; the official count of rejected ballots has not been published in the reports we checked.
Four other council seats, one still counting
Polling for five council seats, three graduates’ and two teachers’, took place on October 23 because the sitting members’ terms end on December 6, Free Press Journal reported. The BJP’s Kaustubh Gawade took the Pune teachers’ seat and Shiv Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik won Amravati teachers’. The NCP (SP) took Pune graduates’ through Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav. Nagpur graduates’, which we previewed before polling, was still being counted late on October 28.
Marathwada carries a different weight. Chavan had held the seat for three straight terms, and he lost it as the ruling alliance’s candidate. A graduates’ electorate is narrow: only degree holders who enrolled on the special voter roll can vote, spread across eight districts from Sambhajinagar and Jalna to Latur and Dharashiv. Parties read these contests as a gauge of educated opinion, and the Mahayuti’s loss here and in Pune graduates’ gives the opposition two of the five seats.
Sambhajinagar’s graduate voters get an opposition MLC
Patil takes the seat when Chavan’s term ends in December. An MLC from a graduates’ constituency has no ward or municipal role, but the post gives a direct voice in the council on matters graduates raise most: government recruitment, exam schedules, university administration and college staffing. For the next six years those questions from Marathwada will go to the house through an opposition member rather than one from the ruling side.
The rejected-ballot claims carry a practical lesson for the next round. A graduate ballot asks you to write numbers, 1, 2, 3, against candidates in order of preference; a tick mark, a repeated number or a missing first preference can void it.
Sources: Saam TV, News18 Marathi, Free Press Journal
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.