Maharashtra council polls expose strains in both alliances

Rebel candidates and competing nominations by allies have complicated Maharashtra’s five legislative council contests scheduled for October 23, testing unity in both the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). India Today reported that results for the graduate and teacher constituency elections are due on October 27.

The seats are Pune teachers, Pune graduates, Amravati teachers, Nagpur graduates and Aurangabad graduates. Congress holds Pune teachers and Nagpur graduates; the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) holds Pune graduates; and the NCP led by deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar holds Aurangabad graduates. Amravati teachers is held by an Independent who subsequently aligned with deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

Candidate withdrawals have resolved some disputes, notably for the BJP in Nagpur. Elsewhere, candidates linked to alliance partners remain in the field against one another, making the contests a test of each coalition’s ability to turn seat-sharing arrangements into coordinated campaigns.

Pune contests cut across coalition lines

Congress incumbent Jayant Asgaonkar faces BJP challenger Kaustubh Gawade in a four-way contest for Pune teachers. Asgaonkar has the backing of senior Congress leader and former minister Satej Patil. Gawade is chief executive of Kolhapur’s Shri Swami Vivekananda Shikshan Sanstha, whose educational network could support his campaign.

Shinde confidant Mangesh Chiwate withdrew after the Shiv Sena initially put him forward. But Sachin Sanap, an aide of industries minister and Sena leader Uday Samant, remains a candidate. Former legislator Dattatray Sawant is also contesting as an Independent.

In Pune graduates, sitting NCP (SCP) legislator Arun Lad chose not to contest. The BJP selected Smita Jadhav, daughter-in-law of media proprietor Pratapsinh Jadhav and niece of Congress leader Satej Patil. Pratap, also known as Bhaiyya, Mane—a supporter of NCP minister Hasan Mushrif—withdrew, easing one potential complication for her.

The opposition has its own competing candidacies. Kolhapur corporator Sunil Modi filed as the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate against NCP (SCP) nominee Harshada Deshmukh Jadhav, daughter of former IAS officer Prabhakar Deshmukh.

Senior NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare have expressed dissatisfaction over their party relinquishing its claim to Pune graduates in favour of the BJP. Both Pune constituencies cover Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur districts.

Amravati and Aurangabad also see allied rivals

In Amravati teachers, sitting legislator and Shiv Sena nominee Kiran Sarnaik faces Congress candidate Aditi Pohare as well as Sena rebel and former legislator Shrikant Deshpande. Sarnaik defeated Deshpande in the 2020 election.

Pohare is the daughter of former minister Harshavardhan Deshmukh, president of Amravati’s Shri Shivaji Education Society, which has an extensive school and college teacher network. She is also the daughter-in-law of editor Prakash Pohare. Her campaign faces competition within the opposition from Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Dattatray Lahane.

The constituency spans Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Washim and Buldhana districts. The report identifies local BJP–Shiv Sena rivalry, including in Buldhana, as a possible influence on the contest. It also links Sena support for Sanap in Pune to BJP opposition to Sarnaik in Amravati; that explanation is a reported political assessment, not an independently established arrangement.

For Aurangabad graduates, three-term NCP legislator Satish Chavan has been renominated. His opponents include Dilip Ghuge of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Pratapsinh Patil of Congress. BJP rebel M.K. Deshmukh’s withdrawal removed one challenger from Chavan’s path.

BJP contains the Nagpur rebellion

The BJP moved to resolve a potentially damaging dispute in Nagpur graduates after former legislator Anil Sole filed as an Independent against its nominee, Sudhakar Kohale. Former legislator Girish Vyas resigned from party positions in support of Sole.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bavankule subsequently persuaded Sole and Vyas to join Kohale’s campaign. Vyas said his objection concerned the way the nomination had been decided and the treatment of longstanding party workers. He said he agreed to return after Fadnavis promised corrective action.

Nagpur graduates has a long association with the BJP and its ideological predecessors. Its past representatives include Gangadharrao Fadnavis, the chief minister’s father, and Nitin Gadkari, who held the seat from 1989 to 2014.

Congress won the seat in 2020 through Abhijit Wanjari, defeating BJP nominee Sandeep Joshi after Sole was denied renomination. The report describes caste representation as an issue in that campaign, contrasting Joshi’s Brahmin background with Wanjari’s membership of the OBC Teli community. That interpretation does not establish caste as the sole cause of the result.

Alliance insiders offer competing explanations

An unnamed Shiv Sena source described the ruling coalition’s disputes as an effort by the Sena and NCP to preserve identities distinct from their larger partner, the BJP. This is an insider’s explanation of the tensions, rather than evidence of a coordinated strategy.

An unnamed senior NCP leader offered a different emphasis: movement from opposition parties into the ruling camp had intensified competition for opportunities within Mahayuti, while MVA partners were contesting against one another to protect their own political space. The claim that the opposition is contracting is that leader’s assessment.

There is a recent example of a rebel defeating an official candidate. Earlier this year, BJP rebel Gokul Gite beat Shiv Sena legislator Kishore Darade in the Nashik local bodies constituency, before joining the Shinde-led Sena as an associate member. Claims that sections of the BJP backed Gite were reported as allegations, not established facts.