Voting was held between 9 am and 4 pm, officials said. The votes will be taken up for counting after 5 pm and the results are expected in the evening, they said

There are 12 candidates in the fray for the 11 seats in the upper house of the state legislature where the 274 current members of the legislative assembly form the electoral college

The Maharashtra Legislative Council elections are being held to fill in vacancies of members whose term ends on July 27. Each winning candidate would need a quota of 23 first-preference votes

In the morning, the Shiv Sena (UBT) said it would request the state electoral officer to extend the voting timing by an hour due to heavy rains in Mumbai

As voting progressed, the Congress wrote to the returning officer, urging that BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad not be allowed to cast his vote

Ganpat Gaikwad, who represents the Kalyan East assembly constituency, was arrested in February for allegedly opening fire on a Shiv Sena functionary inside a police station at Ulhasnagar in Thane district over a land dispute

The Congress said since Ganpat Gaikwad is in judicial custody, he cannot vote under Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that allowing the BJP lawmaker to vote in the council polls would amount to misuse of power

"Gaikwad can come out from jail to vote, but Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik were also in jail (during the 2022 council polls) and were not allowed to vote. This is use or misuse of power," Sanjay Raut said

The BJP is the largest party in the assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena (38), NCP (42), Congress (37), Shiv Sena (UBT) 15 and NCP (SP) 10