Voting underway for five seats in Maharashtra Legislative Council

Voting was underway for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, in a contest primarily between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

The term of five Upper House members - two from graduates' and three from teachers' constituencies - is expiring on February 7. Counting of votes will be taken up on February 2.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has declared support to Shubhangi Patil (independent) in Nashik graduates' constituency, Balaram Patil (independent) in Konkan teachers' constituency, Vikram Kale (NCP) in Aurangabad teachers' constituency, Sudhakar Adbale (independent) in Nagpur teachers' constituency and Dhiraj Lingade (Congress) in Amravati graduates' constituency.

The BJP has fielded Ranjit Patil from Amravati graduates' seat, and Nagorao Ganar, Dyaneshwar Mhatre and Kiran Patil from Nagpur, Konkan and Aurangabad teachers' constituencies respectively. In Nashik graduates' constituency, suspended Congress leader Satyajeet Tambe is contesting as an independent. 

The Congress had suspended Tambe for six years after he filed the nomination as an independent candidate. The Congress had also suspended his father and MLC Sudhir Tambe, who did not file nomination papers after being nominated as the party candidate from the Nashik division graduates' constituency.