Maharashtra votes on Friday, 23 October, to fill five seats in the Legislative Council, and the field is far bigger than the prize. As many as 182 candidates are contesting the five constituencies. Only five will win.
Polling runs from 8 am to 4 pm at 2,419 booths, spread across three graduates' constituencies — Aurangabad, Pune and Nagpur — and two teachers' constituencies, Amravati and Pune. Just over 10.68 lakh graduates and teachers are registered to vote.
Counting is on Tuesday, 27 October. The Election Commission of India has set 31 October 2026 as the deadline to complete the entire exercise, because the sitting members' terms end on 6 December 2026. This is a biennial election, held as those terms fall due.
The crowd is thickest in Pune. Its graduates' constituency has 47 candidates — the most in any of the five seats — and the largest electorate too, at 3,88,019 voters. Aurangabad graduates has 41 candidates and 842 booths. Nagpur graduates has 38 candidates and 445 booths.
On the teachers' side, Pune has 30 candidates and 310 booths. Amravati has the smallest contest of the five: 26 candidates, 81 booths, and the smallest electorate at 35,810 voters.
Add up the candidates and you reach 182. Add up the voters and you reach 10,68,072 across the five constituencies. Each returns one member.
The five sitting members whose terms are ending are Satish Bhanudasrao Chavan (Aurangabad graduates), Arun Ganpati Lad (Pune graduates), Abhijit Govindrao Vanjari (Nagpur graduates), Kiran Ramrao Sarnaik (Amravati teachers) and Jayant Dinkar Asgavkar (Pune teachers).
The state's election machinery said it was ready to conduct the poll in a free, fair and fearless atmosphere. Counting on 27 October will decide who takes the five seats — and the process is to be wrapped up by 31 October, weeks before the old terms lapse.