Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the election for the Aurangabad Division Graduates’ Constituency of the Legislative Council, NCP-SP candidate Dr Pratapsinh Vedprakash Patil emerged victorious by a margin of 18,124 votes. He secured 85,876 votes, while Satish Bhanudasrao Chavan, the candidate of the NCP, received 67,752 votes. Following the elimination of 39 candidates based on the order of preference and the subsequent transfer of votes, Dr Patil secured the highest number of votes in the final count.
Returning Officer and Divisional Commissioner G. Sreekanth declared Dr Patil the winner at 5:10am on Thursday.
The election was held across 842 polling stations in eight districts: Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur and Dharashiv. A total of 41 candidates were in the fray. Arrangements were made for 70 tables to facilitate the counting of votes.
At the beginning of the counting process, the ballot papers were verified and categorised. Subsequently, the counting of first-preference votes was completed in three rounds. By the end of the first round, 70,519 ballot papers had been counted, while the cumulative total reached 1,40,543 by the end of the second round. According to the counting data, 1,77,115 votes were declared valid, while 16,540 votes were deemed invalid. Based on the number of valid votes, the quota required for victory was set at 88,558 votes.
At the end of the first-preference vote count, Dr Pratapsinh Patil received 73,931 votes, Satish Chavan received 60,768 votes, independent candidate Raviraj alias Annasaheb Sawle-Patil received 19,835 votes, and Dilip Ghuge received 8,439 votes. Since no candidate met the required quota for victory, the prescribed election procedure was followed. Candidates with the fewest votes were eliminated in successive rounds, and their ballots were transferred based on the next available preferences marked by voters.
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During the vote-transfer process, votes were reallocated among the remaining candidates according to the next available preferences indicated on the ballot papers of eliminated candidates. From the ballot papers of Dilip Ghuge, 2,285 votes were transferred to Dr Patil, while 1,881 votes were transferred to Satish Chavan. Subsequently, during the 39th round of elimination, 6,469 votes from the ballot papers of Raviraj Sawle-Patil were transferred to Dr Patil, while 3,241 votes were transferred to Satish Chavan.
After the elimination of 39 of the 41 candidates, Dr Patil and Chavan remained in the contest. At this stage, neither candidate had reached the required quota of 88,558 votes. In the final count, Dr Patil secured 85,876 votes, while Satish Chavan received 67,752 votes. Dr Patil thus won the election by a margin of 18,124 votes. Subsequently, Returning Officer G Sreekanth announced the official results and formally declared Dr Patil the winner.
The counting of votes, which began at 8am on Tuesday, October 27, continued for more than 45 consecutive hours before the final results were announced in the early hours of Thursday, October 29.
