After the 10th round of counting in the Rahuri Assembly by-election 2026 on Monday, May 4, BJP candidate Akshay Kardile is leading at nearly 50,000 votes and Govind Mokate is trailing at the time of writing this report.
His rival, Govind Mokate of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction (NCP-SP), has received around 8,000 votes so far and is trailing significantly. The counting of votes began at 8 am in both the assembly segments.
Meanwhile, the Rahuri assembly seat in Ahilyanagar district fell vacant due to the death of BJP MLA Shivaji Kardile in October last year. Rahuri Assembly by-election had witnessed major political developments even before polling. A major twist came on the final day of nomination filing when Prajakt Tanpure decided not to submit his nomination at the last moment. This had sparked speculation over whether the election would be held unopposed. Rahuri registered a 56.20% turnout, as per election officials.
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However, the by-election eventually turned into a contest, with seven candidates remaining in the fray. The key contenders included BJP candidate Akshay Kardile, Govind Mokate of NCP-SP and Santosh Cholke of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), along with four independent candidates.
The by-election has been viewed as a prestige battle between the BJP and the NCP-SP faction led by Sharad Pawar.