Representative image. Election Commission of India, GODL-India, Wikimedia Commons
Why it matters
Only registered graduates and teachers vote for these seats. In Karnataka, PTI reported, the contests were seen as a test of the Congress's support among them and of how well the BJP and JD(S) worked together. The results change the make-up of the upper houses in four states; PTI said the Karnataka results were not expected to affect the state government's stability. There, the ruling Congress lost the one seat of the four it held.
The BJP and its ally the Janata Dal (Secular) won 6 of the first 8 seats declared in the MLC election results (MLC stands for member of the Legislative Council) for 28 council seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Counting began at 8 am on 27 October 2026 and ran past midnight; by early 28 October the other 20 seats were still being counted, according to the reports NewsPlainly read up to about 5 am. The Samajwadi Party (SP) kept one seat in Uttar Pradesh, and an independent who had been expelled by the BJP won one in Bihar.
These are biennial polls for graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, seats in the upper houses of four state legislatures where only registered graduates or teachers vote. Polling was held on 23 October. No Maharashtra seat had been declared in the reports read.
MLC election results so far: the 8 declared seats
The Karnataka MLC results came first, for two teachers’ seats. In Bengaluru Teachers’, A P Ranganath of the JD(S), contesting with BJP backing, beat the sitting Congress MLC Puttanna by 908 votes, 10,810 to 9,902, according to Deccan Herald and a press release quoted by the news agency PTI (Press Trust of India). It was Ranganath’s third attempt at the seat; he lost to Puttanna in 2020, when Puttanna was a BJP candidate, and again in a 2024 bypoll after Puttanna moved to the Congress, Deccan Herald reported. In North-East Teachers’, which includes Kalaburagi, the BJP’s sitting MLC Shashil G Namoshi beat the Congress’s Sharanappa Mattur by 3,297 votes, 15,596 to 12,299.
In the UP MLC election, the BJP kept three seats it already held and the SP kept one, The Times of India and Hindustan Times (HT) reported. In Meerut, the district information officer told PTI that both BJP winners had been handed their certificates.
| Seat | Winner | Runner-up | Margin | Held before by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bengaluru Teachers’ (Karnataka) | A P Ranganath, JD(S) | Puttanna, Congress | 908 | Congress |
| North-East Teachers’ (Karnataka) | Shashil G Namoshi, BJP | Sharanappa Mattur, Congress | 3,297 | BJP |
| Meerut Graduates’ (UP) | Dinesh Kumar Goyal, BJP | Pramod Singh Bhati, SP | 12,855 | BJP |
| Meerut Teachers’ (UP) | Shrichand Sharma, BJP | Nitin Tomar, SP | 13,241 | BJP |
| Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ (UP) | Hari Singh Dhillon, BJP | Haji Mohammad Danish Akhtar, SP | Not given | BJP |
| Varanasi Teachers’ (UP) | Lal Bihari Yadav, SP | Pramod Mishra, BJP | About 4,900 | SP |
| Tirhut Teachers’ (Bihar) | Narendra Prasad Singh, BJP | Bhushan Kumar Jha, independent | 594 | CPI |
| Saran Teachers’ (Bihar) | Rahul Raj, independent | Not given | Not given | Afaque Ahmad |
Counted by party, the declared MLC election results so far are BJP 5, JD(S) 1, SP 1 and one independent. Set against who held these 8 seats before, NewsPlainly’s count shows the BJP up from 4 to 5 and the JD(S) up by one, while the Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI) each lost a seat.
Bihar MLC results: a BJP gain and a rebel’s win
In Tirhut Teachers’, the BJP’s Narendra Prasad Singh polled 2,945 votes against 2,351 for the independent Bhushan Kumar Jha, The Hindu reported, a margin of 594. The sitting CPI MLC, Sanjay Kumar Singh, came third with 1,967. The Times of India said this leaves the CPI without a member in the Bihar council.
Saran Teachers’ went to Rahul Raj, an independent whom the BJP expelled after he rebelled against the alliance’s choice of candidate. He stood against the official NDA candidate, Anand Puskar of the Janata Dal (United). The Times of India reported that he defeated the sitting MLC, Afaque Ahmad, and The Economic Times also reported his win.
One more of the Bihar MLC results was reported but is not in the table. NDTV reported that Suresh Prasad Rai of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party won Darbhanga Teachers’ by 324 votes over the sitting Congress MLC Madan Mohan Jha, calling it the party’s first seat in the council. The vote figures in the same report, 2,574 and 2,187, are 387 apart, and NewsPlainly did not find a second report of the declared result; The Hindu and The Times of India had reported Rai leading.
MLC election results still pending: the other 20 seats
These were leads, not declared MLC election results, at the times given. Leads can change as preferences are transferred.
| State | Seat | Lead reported | Source and time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | West Graduates’ | S V Sankanur (BJP) ahead of Mohan Limbikai (Congress) after round 2 | Deccan Herald, published 5.13 am, 28 Oct |
| Karnataka | South-East Graduates’ | K M Suresh (BJP) ahead of Shashi Hulikunte Mutt (Congress) by 1,122 after round 1 | Deccan Herald, published 5.13 am, 28 Oct |
| UP | Lucknow Teachers’ | Umesh Dwivedi (BJP) ahead by 3,652 | The Times of India, HT, about 1 am |
| UP | Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers’ | Dhruv Tripathi (BJP) ahead of Rajeev Yadav by 110 | The Times of India, HT, about 1 am |
| Maharashtra | Nagpur Graduates’ | Abhijit Wanjari (Congress) 28,998 to Sudhakar Kohale (BJP) 28,071 after round 1 | The Times of India, figures till 11 pm, 27 Oct |
In the rest of Uttar Pradesh, Hindustan Times reported the BJP ahead in Agra Graduates’ and Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ and the SP ahead in Agra Teachers’, where repolling was held at three booths after allegations of booth capturing and six officials were suspended, PTI reported. Counting for Varanasi Graduates’ was due to start on 28 October.
Among the pending Bihar MLC results, Patna Graduates’ shows how unsettled the count was. The Times of India reported the sitting JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar ahead of the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Dilip Patel, while The Hindu reported Patel ahead, with Jan Suraaj’s Anuj Singh third. Mokama MLA Anant Singh, expelled by the JD(U), campaigned for Anuj Singh. The BJP’s N K Yadav led in Kosi Graduates’ and the RJD’s Anil Jha in Darbhanga Graduates’, The Hindu reported.
Maharashtra had no declared MLC election results in the reports read. The Mahayuti alliance led in three seats and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in two, The Economic Times reported around midnight. In Amravati Teachers’, Kiran Sarnaik, the Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate backed by the Mahayuti, led by 3,474 votes after three rounds, The Times of India reported.
Why MLC election results take two days
These polls used ballot papers, not voting machines, and voters rank candidates in order of preference. A candidate wins by reaching a quota of valid votes. If nobody does, the lowest-placed candidates drop out and their voters’ next preferences are moved to those still in the race. “The counting process is time-consuming as the Legislative Council elections follow a system of proportional representation via the single transferable vote (STV) method,” Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa said, according to Hindustan Times.
Spoilt ballots add to the work. In Nagpur Graduates’, 7,128 ballots were rejected as invalid after the first round, compared with over 11,000 in 2020, The Times of India reported. SP workers protested over alleged irregularities and delays in Uttar Pradesh, and the returning officer rejected the allegations, Hindustan Times reported.
What the MLC election results mean for the councils
In Karnataka, PTI reported, the results were not expected to affect the stability of the Congress government. The state’s 75-member council had 38 Congress members, 24 from the BJP, 6 from the JD(S), one independent and the Chairman, with five nominated seats vacant, PTI reported. BJP and JD(S) leaders credited their alliance for the Bengaluru win, Deccan Herald reported; the reports read did not include a Congress response to the Karnataka results.
Uttar Pradesh’s 100-member council has 83 members from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), 79 of them from the BJP, and 10 from the SP, Hindustan Times reported. In 2020 these 11 seats split BJP 6, SP 3 and independents 2.
Officials in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh expected the remaining MLC election results to be declared on 28 October.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the Bengaluru Teachers' MLC seat?
A P Ranganath of the JD(S), backed by the BJP, beat the sitting Congress MLC Puttanna by 908 votes, 10,810 to 9,902, Deccan Herald and PTI reported.
Which party won the Tirhut Teachers' seat in Bihar?
The BJP's Narendra Prasad Singh, with 2,945 votes to 2,351 for the independent Bhushan Kumar Jha. The sitting CPI MLC came third, The Hindu reported.
Why are MLC election results taking so long?
Council polls use ballot papers and ranked preferences. If no candidate reaches the winning quota, the lowest are eliminated and their votes transferred, which takes rounds of counting.
Have the Maharashtra MLC results been declared?
Not in the reports read up to about 5 am on 28 October. In Nagpur Graduates', the Congress's Abhijit Wanjari led the BJP's Sudhakar Kohale by 927 first preferences after round 1.