BJP’s Rahul Narwekar elected as New Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly

National

Rahul Narwekar, a candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party, has been chosen as the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today as the special session got underway following the installation of the new Eknath Shinde administration in the state.

164 people voted in favour of Narwekar, while 107 people against him. Soon after, chanting of “Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji,” “Jai Sri Ram,” “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” and “Vande Mataram” were heard when Narwekar assumed control as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly.

Samajwadi Party (SP) did not cast a vote against the BJP candidate throughout the session. During the head count, both of its MLAs, Abu Azmi and Raees Shaikh, remained seated.

Notably, AIMIM did not vote against Narwekar of the BJP.

Shah Farukh Anwar of the AIMIM, two MLAs from SP, and one MLA from the AIMIM all chose not to participate in the vote in the Assembly.

The Shinde-Fadnavis administration will have to demonstrate its majority on the House Floor on Monday in a Vote of Confidence during the two-day extraordinary session of the Assembly, which begins on Sunday.

Notably, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was viewed as the front-runner for the top position in the government, was sworn in as Shinde’s deputy. Shinde had spearheaded the mutiny against Shiv Sena leader and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

While BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar was picked as a contender for the position of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker, the MVA nominated Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi as a candidate for the Speaker election.

After Nana Patole, the Speaker of the Congress, resigned from her position in February 2021 to assume leadership of the party’s state unit, the position of Speaker in the Assembly became vacant. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal was serving as the Speaker of the House in the absence of a Speaker.

A day after Thackeray’s resignation as chief minister, Shinde and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met with governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and asserted their right to form the state’s administration.

At a joint news conference in Mumbai on Thursday, Fadnavis, who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019, said that he will leave the administration. Fadnavis later took the oath to serve as the Deputy CM, at the instruction of the BJP’s top leadership.