Polling for five Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) seats — spanning three graduate and two teacher constituencies — is underway on Friday, 23 October, with 182 candidates contesting across 2,419 polling stations statewide. Both the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have claimed they will sweep all five seats, even as allegations of voter roll irregularities cast a shadow over the exercise.

Constituencies and Voter Turnout Base

Polling, which began at 8 am and is scheduled to close at 4 pm, is being conducted in the Pune Teachers and Pune Graduate constituencies, Amravati Teacher Constituency, and the Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduate Constituencies. Rebel candidates have complicated the contest for both alliances in several of these seats.

The Pune Graduate constituency records the largest voter base at approximately 3.88 lakh voters, while the Amravati Teacher constituency has the smallest, with roughly 35,000 voters. Votes will be counted on 27 October.

Mahayuti Confident of a Clean Sweep

Union Minister of State Murlidhar Mohol cast his vote at Dindayal Upadhyaya School in Kothrud, Pune, and expressed firm confidence in the coalition's prospects. He said graduate and teacher voters are 'educated and analytical' and assess national progress, global developments, and the pace of state development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Ministers before voting.

Mohol specifically backed candidates Smita Jadhav and Kaustubh Gawde, asserting that alliance-supporting voters would stand firmly behind the coalition. Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil also declared that Mahayuti would win all five seats.

MVA Levels Serious Voter Roll Allegations

Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar countered by predicting MVA victories across all five seats — including the Nagpur Graduate, both Pune seats, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Amravati. Wadettiwar alleged that flawed voter lists represent a critical integrity issue, and claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resorts to manipulation of voter rolls because it cannot win elections fairly.

The Nagpur Graduate constituency saw particular friction. Congress candidate Abhijit Wanjari and party leaders flagged concerns over 8,744 duplicate voter entries spread across multiple polling booths. Congress state chief spokesperson Atul Londhe alleged at a press conference that approximately 20,000 to 22,000 voter registrations were processed using a single mobile number — 5432154321 — and questioned the transparency of the verification process.

A formal letter demanding an inquiry was submitted to the divisional commissioner by Congress leader Prafulla Goodhe. Following the complaints, election authorities at affected booths required voters with duplicate listings to submit a short written declaration confirming they were voting at only one designated location.

Voter Identification and Process

To ensure ballot validity, voters were required to present one of several approved identity documents, including Aadhaar cards, driving licences, PAN cards, Indian passports, government or semi-government service ID cards, MP/MLA/MLC official IDs, educational institution service IDs, or original university degree and diploma certificates.

What Happens Next

With counting set for 27 October, the results of these five seats are being watched as an early indicator of ground-level sentiment ahead of the next state assembly elections. The voter roll controversy in Nagpur, in particular, could become the basis for formal legal challenges if the margin in that seat is narrow.