BJP SWEEPS THE WIDER ELECTORAL FIELD, BUT NAGPUR AND VARANASI PUNCTURE THE VICTORY NARRATIVE
October 29, 2026
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 29, 2026: The results of the Legislative Council (MLC) elections across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka have delivered a mixed political verdict, with the BJP and its allies securing significant victories while the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) registered notable gains in politically important constituencies.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) demonstrated its organisational strength in Karnataka, sweeping all four contested seats through the BJP-JD(S) alliance. The Congress suffered a major setback despite governing the state, failing to secure a single seat.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won six of the 11 Legislative Council seats, while the Samajwadi Party secured five, improving its previous tally. The SP's victories in Varanasi and other constituencies offered the opposition an opportunity to demonstrate its continued electoral presence ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
The result in Varanasi carried particular political significance because the city is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency. The SP's success in the teachers' constituency challenged the BJP's position in a symbolically important political centre, although the outcome cannot independently establish a broader shift in voter preferences across the region.
In Maharashtra, Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjari retained the Nagpur Graduates' constituency, defeating BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes. Wanjari secured 67,231 votes against Kohale's 63,960, with second-preference votes proving decisive after neither candidate reached the required quota in the initial count.
The result was particularly notable because Nagpur is the home region of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, both of whom had campaigned for the BJP candidate. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi secured three of the five seats in Maharashtra, while the BJP and Shiv Sena won one each.
Bihar delivered another mixed outcome. The NDA won four of the eight seats, while opposition candidates and independents secured the remaining victories. The Jan Suraaj Party, founded by Prashant Kishor, also entered the state's Legislative Council through its first victory.
Taken together, the results underline the BJP-led alliance's continued strength across several regions while demonstrating that opposition parties retain the capacity to win specific constituencies through local support and effective campaigning.
With the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections approaching, the SP's performance and the Congress victory in Nagpur are likely to feature prominently in political calculations. Nevertheless, these elections involved graduate and teacher constituencies rather than the entire electorate, making broader conclusions about future Assembly contests premature.
