NDA takes 16 of 27 declared MLC seats in four states; Varanasi Graduates’ count still unfinished

Counting for the 2026 Legislative Council elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which began at 8 am on Tuesday, 27 October, had settled 27 of the 28 graduates’ and teachers’ seats by Thursday morning, 29 October. The National Democratic Alliance and its partners hold 16 of the declared seats. The only contest still open is Varanasi Graduates’ in Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate was well ahead.

The picture has changed considerably since our report on 28 October. Bihar and Maharashtra, which were incomplete then, have finished, and Congress has kept its grip on the Nagpur Division Graduates’ seat after a count that ran more than 40 hours.

Uttar Pradesh: BJP 6, SP 4, one pending

The BJP won Meerut Graduates’ (Dinesh Kumar Goyal), Meerut Teachers’ (Shrichand Sharma, by 13,241 votes), Agra Graduates’ (Manvendra Pratap Singh), Lucknow Teachers’ (Umesh Dwivedi), Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ (Hari Singh Dhillon, by 17,676) and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers’ (Dhruv Kumar Tripathi). The Gorakhpur-Faizabad count was contested: independent Rajiv Yadav, who had led earlier, alleged manipulation, and The Week reported claims of broken and missing ballot boxes.

The SP took Varanasi Teachers’ (Lal Bihari Yadav), Agra Teachers’ (Akash Agarwal), Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ (Man Singh Yadav) and Lucknow Graduates’ (Kanti Singh). The Week, on the night of 28 October, described the Lucknow Graduates’ result as not yet formally announced, though it counted the seat in the SP tally.

In Varanasi Graduates’, counting entered a third day on Thursday after being halted amid allegations of vote theft. After the ninth round, SP’s Ashutosh Sinha had 50,462 votes against 33,472 for the BJP’s Kedarnath Singh, a lead of 16,990, Zoom News reported at 8:41 am. An SP win would hand the party both council seats in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.

Bihar: NDA 4 of 8, Jan Suraaj debuts

JD(U)’s Neeraj Kumar won the Patna Graduates’ seat by 4,655 votes, Dainik Jagran English reported. The BJP won Kosi Graduates’ (Dr N K Yadav, by 10,026), Tirhut Teachers’ (Narendra Prasad Singh, by 594) and Darbhanga Graduates’ (Sarvesh Kumar, by more than 1,500). The RJD won Patna Teachers’ through Dr Sanjeev Kumar. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj opened its account in the council as Dr Suresh Prasad Rai took Darbhanga Teachers’ by just 324 votes. Two independents won: Rahul Raj in Saran Teachers’ (by 1,815) and Banshidhar Brajvasi in Tirhut Graduates’, who defeated JD(U)’s Abhishek Jha by 9,147 votes.

Maharashtra: MVA 3, Mahayuti 2

Congress’s Abhijeet Wanjari retained Nagpur Division Graduates’ with 67,231 votes to 63,960 for the BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale, a margin of 3,271, overtaking Kohale on second-preference transfers. The result, a setback for the BJP in the home city of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, came early on Thursday. NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won Pune Graduates’ (Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav) and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Graduates’. For the ruling side, Shiv Sena’s Kiran Sarnaik kept Amravati Teachers’ and the BJP’s Kaustubh Gawade won Pune Teachers’. Polling was held on 23 October.

Karnataka: NDA 4 of 4

As reported earlier, the NDA won all four seats. JD(S)’s A P Ranganath won Bengaluru Teachers’ by 908 votes, and the BJP’s Shashil Namoshi (North-East Teachers’), S V Sankanur (West Graduates’) and K M Suresh (South-East Graduates’) won the rest. Congress drew a blank.

Sources

• The Week: Uttar Pradesh MLC election results, SP catches up to BJP with 4 wins amid Varanasi seat tensions
• Zoom News: UP MLC election counting day three continues with SP leading in Varanasi
• Sunday Guardian: UP MLC elections results 2026 full list of winners
• India TV: UP MLC election results, BJP bags four seats, Samajwadi Party 2
• India.com: UP MLC result 2026 winners list
• Dainik Jagran English: UP MLC election 2026 results live
• Dainik Jagran English: Bihar MLC election result 2026 full winners list
• India TV: Bihar MLC poll results 2026, BJP bags 3 seats, Jan Suraaj opens account
• ETV Bharat: Congress retains Nagpur MLC seat in blow to BJP in RSS bastion
• India.com: Nagpur MLC election result 2026, Abhijeet Wanjari beats Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes
• India TV: MLC election results highlights, NDA wins big in four states