Maha Assembly session begins to elect Speaker

National

Voting for the next Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly began after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other MLAs came in the state Assembly in Mumbai today.

Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister, and other BJP legislators also arrived at the state legislature. The Eknath Shinde-faction had earlier left the Mumbai Hotel Trident, from whence they had been taken to the Assembly.

Following the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state, the new Eknath Shinde administration will elect the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday.

The scenario is set for political changes in Maharashtra to happen over the weekend with the MLAs’ return from Goa, where they joined their leader Shinde in echoing the mutiny against Uddhav Thackeray.

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.

Notably, the MVA has nominated BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar as a candidate for the position of Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, while the Shiv Sena has nominated Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi. The Shiv Sena has ordered all of its lawmakers to appear in the Assembly today.

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.