MLC Election Results 2026 NDA Wins 16 of 28 Seats Across Four States BJP Largest Party With 13

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has won 16 of the 28 Legislative Council seats that went to polls across four states, with the BJP alone winning 13 seats to emerge as the largest party. The elections were held in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka for graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, with voting held on 23 October 2026 by ballot paper and results declared by 28-29 October 2026.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew attention to the method of voting after the results, pointing out in a post on 28 October that the council elections in four large states had been held on ballot papers. He asked how many seats the Congress had won in those elections. The Congress won just one seat in total, the Nagpur graduates’ seat in Maharashtra, and drew a blank in Karnataka.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won six of the 11 seats and the Samajwadi Party won five. In Bihar, the BJP won three of the eight seats, the Janata Dal (United) won one, the Rashtriya Janata Dal won one, the Jan Suraj Party won one, and independents won two seats. The Jan Suraj Party’s win marked its first victory in a Legislative Council election.

Karnataka produced a clean sweep for the BJP-led alliance, with the BJP winning three of the four seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) winning one, while the ruling Congress lost all four seats. In Maharashtra, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi won three of the five seats, comprising one Congress seat and two Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) seats, while the ruling Mahayuti won two seats, one each for the BJP and the Shiv Sena. In Nagpur, Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjari retained his graduates’ seat, defeating BJP candidate Sudhakar Kohale by 3,271 votes, polling 67,231 votes against Kohale’s 63,960.

Taken together, the BJP’s 13 seats, plus one each for the Janata Dal (United), the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Shiv Sena, took the NDA tally to 16, with the Samajwadi Party emerging as the second-largest party with five seats. The results are being read as significant for the BJP ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due within months, since graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies are seen as a test of a party’s organisational reach on the ground.