MLC poll results: NDA wins 16 seats; SP gains, Cong wins 1

Election officials count the ballot papers for Nagpur Division Graduates’ Constituency MLC Election in Nagpur, October 29, 2026.

The NDA alliance won 16 of the 28 legislative council seats contested across four states.

The Congress secured only one seat overall and lost all four seats in Karnataka.

The Samajwadi Party gained 5 seats in Uttar Pradesh, including two in Varanasi, ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.

The BJP faced a significant setback in Nagpur, Maharashtra, losing in the hometown of CM Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The Jan Suraaj Party achieved its maiden victory in Bihar's Upper House, contributing to major upsets where five sitting MLCs lost their seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies won 16 of the 28 seats in the legislative council elections held across four states as the Congress won one seat in Maharashtra as the Samajwadi Party made gains in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and the Jan Suraaj Party opened its account in Bihar’s upper House.

In a nail-biting contest, Congress candidate and sitting MLC Abhijeet Wanjari defeated BJP's Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes to retain the Nagpur Division Graduates' constituency seat.

Wanjari, a sitting MLC, secured 67,231 votes, while Kohale, a former MLA, got 63,960 votes.

It is a big setback for the BJP as it has lost in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who had campaigned extensively for Kohale.

Gadkari was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the Nagpur graduates' constituency for 24 years, from July 1990, to May 2014.

With the Congress nominee's victory, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has won three of the five MLC seats in the October 23 elections. The BJP-led ruling Mahayuti alliance got two seats.

Congress leaders lost no time in taunting BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis over their tweets indicating that the party had scored a duck in the polls.

Maharashtra Congress shared a screenshot of a deleted tweet by Fadnavis on social media, which said the grand old party got a "big fat zero" in the polls.

"By deleting the tweet, Fadnavis has once again preserved Savarkar's legacy! Even before the full results were in hand, in a show of firing a big arrow, Fadnavis tweeted. But that very arrow turned back and pierced straight into his chest! In the end, he was forced to delete the tweet," the state Congress said on X.

"Mr Fadnavis, scared already at this stage? This is just the trailer! In 2029, the people of Maharashtra will drop such a political bombshell on you that even this tweet of today will come back to haunt you! All the best, Mr. Fadnavis! Get ready for the next jolt," it added.

State Congress unit chief Harshwardhan Sapkal said the BJP nominee has been trounced in the Nagpur, which has RSS headquarters.

Mahayuti allies BJP and Shiv Sena won a seat each out of the five Maharashtra Legislative Council constituencies where polling was held on October 23.

The NCP (SP) won the Pune graduates constituency and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates' constituency. Both seats were held earlier by the undivided NCP before it split in 2023.

Shiv Sena's Kiran Sarnaik emerged victorious in the Amravati Teachers' constituency, while BJP nominee Kaustubh Gawade won the Pune Teachers' constituency. NCP (SP) candidate Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav defeated BJP nominee Smita Jadhav to win the Pune Graduates constituency.

Sapkal said Modi mocked the Congress by saying that the party drew a blank in polls. "However, the bubble of illusion has burst in the end," he added.

NCP leader Praful Patel called for an immediate review of the party's priorities and organisational structure after its sole candidate lost the elections.

In the 78-member Legislative Council, the BJP is the largest party with 35 members, followed by the Shiv Sena with 12 and the NCP with 10. Among the opposition parties, the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have five MLCs each, while the NCP (SP) has two. The House also has four independent MLCs.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won six of the 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats while the Samajwadi Party secured three, with the polls seen as symbolically crucial ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.

Besides the three seats, the Samajwadi Party (SP) also celebrated victory in the Lucknow graduates' constituency, although an official announcement was awaited.

The SP candidate was also leading by 9,491 votes in the graduates' constituency in Varanasi at the end of the fifth round of counting around 11.30 pm, according to poll officials.

The six seats that the BJP won include the Agra graduates' constituency, the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers' constituency, the Lucknow teachers' constituency, Meerut's teachers' and graduates' constituencies, and the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers' seat, where Independent candidate Rajiv Yadav has alleged voter manipulation.

The SP won the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates' constituency, and the teachers' constituencies in Varanasi and Agra-Aligarh.

In the Agra graduates' seat, the BJP's Manvendra Pratap Singh (Guruji) was declared winner.

The BJP retained the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers' seat, where its candidate Hari Singh Dhillon defeated SP nominee Danish Akhtar by 17,676 votes.

Returning officer and Bareilly Division Commissioner Shambhu Kumar said Dhillon received 21,672 votes against Akhtar's 3,996 after all five rounds of counting were concluded.

The BJP also won the Lucknow teachers' constituency, where Umesh Dwivedi defeated SP's Sushil Kumar by 6,992 votes. Dwivedi secured 13,179 votes against Kumar's 8,371, according to the results.

In Meerut, the BJP won both the teachers' and graduates' seats.

According to an official, BJP candidates Dinesh Kumar Goyal (graduates') and Shri Chand Sharma (teachers') were declared winners in Meerut.

The BJP also retained the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers' constituency, with its candidate Dhruv Tripathi defeating Independent nominee Rajiv Yadav by a narrow margin of 307 votes.

Tripathi secured 14,887 votes against Yadav's 14,580 in the closely fought contest.

However, Yadav alleged that the election had been manipulated to ensure his defeat, claiming that around 1,000 votes had been stolen.

Yadav said he would approach both the Election Commission and the court to challenge the results. He also demanded a forensic examination of the 1,612 votes counted in the fourth round, alleging irregularities in the counting process.

During the counting, disputes arose over the margin of votes and the procedures followed. The candidates raised objections after 52 additional votes were found in a ballot box at a booth in Mau than what was recorded in the official data.

Additional commissioner of Ayodhya, Ajay Saini, was removed following a complaint lodged by a candidate.

However, the administration maintained that the counting process followed the rules.

In the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates' seat, SP candidate Mansingh Yadav was declared elected, while Lal Bihari Yadav from the party emerged the winner in the Varanasi teachers' constituency.

Samajwadi MP from Chandauli, Virendra Singh, questioned the district administration over an alleged delay of around six hours in announcing the results.

In the Agra-Aligarh teachers' constituency, SP's Akash Agrawal defeated BJP's Hari Kishore Tiwari.

The MLC polls are being seen as a prestige battle between the BJP and the SP ahead of next year's Uttar Pradesh elections.

Before the polls, the BJP held six of the 11 seats – Agra, Meerut-Saharanpur and Lucknow graduates' seats and the teachers' constituencies in Bareilly-Moradabad, Lucknow and Meerut-Saharanpur.

The SP held three – the Varanasi and Allahabad-Jhansi graduates' seats and the Varanasi teachers' constituency.

The remaining two seats – Agra and Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers' constituencies – were held by Independents.

Karnataka MLC Election Analysis

In a setback to the Congress in Karnataka, the party lost all four seats in the Legislative Council elections, with the opposition JD(S) wresting one segment from the ruling party and its ally BJP retaining three.

The JD(S) wrested the Bengaluru Teachers' Constituency from Congress.

The BJP registered victory in North-East Teachers', South-East Graduates' and West Graduates' constituencies, defeating the Congress candidates.

Although the outcome may not impact the Congress government's stability, it is being seen as a result of BJP-JD(S) opposition consolidation and serves as a moral victory for the bloc.

While the results of Bengaluru Teachers' and North-East Teachers' constituencies were declared on Tuesday, the counting continued overnight in the other two segments, officials said on Wednesday.

All four MLC seats went to polls on October 23, in which ballot papers were used as per practice.

In the Bengaluru Teachers' Constituency, JD(S) candidate A P Ranganath defeated sitting Congress MLC Puttanna, who sought re-election, by a margin of 908 votes. Ranganath secured 10,810 votes against Puttanna's 9,902, officials said.

In the North-East Teachers' Constituency, BJP's sitting MLC Shashil G Namoshi defeated Congress candidate Sharanappa Mattur, officials said.

According to party sources, this was his fifth victory from the segment, which covers Kalaburagi, the home turf of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and neighbouring districts of the Kalyana Karnataka region.

Namoshi won by a margin of 3,297 votes, securing 15,596 votes, while Mattur garnered 12,299 votes.

In the South-East Graduates' Constituency, BJP candidate K M Suresh secured a decisive victory over Congress nominee Shashi Hulikunte Mutt. He won by a margin of 23,098 votes.

While Suresh polled 66,020 votes, the Congress candidate got 42,922 votes.

In the West Graduates' Constituency, sitting BJP MLC S V Sankanur won against Congress candidate Mohan Limbikai by a margin of 9,323 votes, official sources said.

While Sankanur secured 33,711 votes, the Congress candidate got 24,388 votes, they said.

The contest was seen as a test of coordination between the BJP and JD(S), which are alliance partners, as well as the Congress's support base among teachers and graduates.

The BJP retained the three seats it held earlier, while the JD(S) succeeded in wresting the Bengaluru Teachers' Constituency from the Congress.

The Bengaluru contest was significant as Puttanna had switched from the JD(S) to the Congress ahead of the previous Assembly elections in 2023. Both Puttanna and Ranganath belong to the Vokkaliga community.

The election served as a key test of whether the two opposition alliance partners could transfer their support to each other's candidates.

The Congress, which had sought to hold on to its lone seat and expand its presence in other constituencies, has failed to deliver.

Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president B K Hariprasad, ministers and senior party leaders campaigned across the constituencies.

Biennial polls to eight constituencies of the Bihar Legislative Council witnessed major upsets, with five sitting MLCs, including one each from the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, losing their seats, even as fledgling Jan Suraaj Party scored its maiden victory in the Upper House.

Of the eight seats, which went to polls on October 23 and for which counting had been underway since Tuesday, three went to the BJP, and two were bagged by Independents while RJD, the main party in opposition, Jan Suraaj Party and NDA partner JD(U) got one each.

Fifth-term BJP MLC Nawal Kishor Yadav failed to retain Patna Teachers' constituency, conceding the seat to Sanjeev Kumar of the RJD.

The ruling party's strength in the legislative council, however, remains intact with Narendra Prasad Singh wresting Tirhut Teachers' seat from Sanjay Kumar Singh of the CPI, who had the support of the entire INDIA bloc.

Sanjeev Kumar, a former MLA from Parbatta who failed to retain the seat in last year's assembly polls when he contested on an RJD ticket after quitting the JD(U), held his own in the legislative council seat despite fears of a split in INDIA bloc votes, thanks to Sanjay Yadav of the Congress also entering the fray.

Two BJP MLCs, Sarvesh Kumar and N K Yadav, retained Darbhanga Graduates' and Kosi Graduates' seats, respectively.

Notably, Darbhanga Graduates' seat witnessed messy infighting among INDIA bloc partners as votes of the opposition coalition got split among Anil Jha of RJD, Rajni Kant Pathak of Congress and Sandeep Chaudhary of the CPI(ML) Liberation.

BJP ally JD(U), which had contested the remaining four seats on behalf of the NDA, registered its sole victory in Patna Graduates' seat, which was retained for the fourth consecutive term by Neeraj Kumar, who surmounted a revolt by detractor Anant Kumar Singh.

Singh, the MLA from Mokama, had vowed to defeat Kumar and canvassed for Anuj Singh of Jan Suraaj Party, only to face expulsion from the JD(U) a day after the polls.

Former state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha failed to score a hat-trick in Darbhanga Teachers' constituency, as the seat went to BJP turncoat Suresh Prasad Rai, this time contesting on the ticket of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party.

Rai, who had contested the seat in 2020 on a BJP ticket, switched sides a few months ago. His victory was aided by a split in the INDIA bloc's votes in the constituency where CPI(M)'s Ramdev Rai is understood to have cut into the Congress's votes and JD(U)'s Ghanshyam Rai, a low-key candidate, failed to enthuse voters, finishing a distant fourth.

The Congress, which had contested five seats, drew a blank and is now left with just one member, Rajeev Kumar from local bodies (Begusarai), in the 75-strong Bihar Vidhan Parishad.

Interestingly, Rajeev Kumar, who had got elected in 2022, is the elder brother of Sanjeev Kumar, the RJD's giant-killer in the Patna Teachers' constituency.

The siblings, born to the late Ramanand Prasad Singh, a former minister and a JD(U) stalwart of his time, are said to be the first brother duo ever to be members of the Bihar Legislative Council at the same time.

Another BJP turncoat, Rahul Raj, who contested the Saran Teachers' seat as an Independent, inflicted a humiliating defeat on sitting MLC Afaq Ahmed.

Ahmed had won the seat in 2021 with the support of Kishor, who was then several months away from floating a party. This time, contesting as the Jan Suraaj Party's official candidate, Afaq was expecting an easier contest since Anand Pushkar of JD(U) and Ram Pukar Sinha of Rashtriya Lok Morcha were causing a split in NDA votes.

Another Independent candidate to register a victory was Bansi Dhar Brajwasi, who retained Tirhut Graduates' constituency that he wrested from the JD(U) two years ago, in a bypoll that had been necessitated by legislative council Chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Sitamarhi.

Meanwhile, five people were detained by the police following a scuffle between supporters of RJD and BJP candidates at the counting centre of the Darbhanga Graduates' seat on Wednesday. The situation was immediately brought under control.

The Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Kosi Graduates' constituencies had a total of 4.92 lakh eligible electors, while the Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Saran Teachers' seats had 40,253 voters.