Maha: Shinde-Led Sena Faction Issues Whip, Directs MLAs To Vote For BJP's Rahul Narwekar As Assembly Speaker

First-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar has been pitted against Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi for the post of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker.

New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has issued a whip directing Shiv Sena MLAs to support Rahul Narvekar, the BJP candidate proposed for the Assembly Speaker's post. This move can be seen as Shinde indirectly staking his claim on Shiv Sena once again. It comes as Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi on Saturday filed his nomination as the Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) candidate for the post of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker. On Friday, first-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar filed his nomination for the post.

The election for the Speaker post will be held today. CM Eknath Shinde and MLAs of his faction arrived at the State Assembly in Mumbai for the poll.

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar shared a response over the matter saying, "Candidate Rahul Narvekar's name will be proposed for Speaker post. First, there'll be a voice vote. If someone asks for a division of votes then it will be done and the elected Speaker will take charge. We expect our candidate to get 165-170 votes"

"No whip is implemented in the election of Speaker so I appeal to all members to vote as per their conscience. Shiv Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology has given a whip and so has the Uddhav Thackeray faction. We have an alliance with Balasaheb's Shiv Sena," he added, as quoted by news agency ANI.

Shinde Govt To Face Floor Test Tomorrow

A special two-day Assembly session has been convened on July 3 and 4. While the election for the speaker's post is set to be held today, the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in whose cabinet BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is the deputy CM, will face the floor test tomorrow.

The MVA alliance consists of the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress. The government of these three parties collapsed on Wednesday following a rebellion by Eknath Shinde, who took oath as Chief Minister the next day.

Jayant Patil, Dhananjay Munde (NCP), Ashok Chavan (Congress), and Sunil Prabhu (Shiv Sena) were prominent among those who were present with Salvi when he filed his papers.

The post of assembly speaker has been lying vacant since Nana Patole of Congress resigned in February last year to become the party's state unit president.

(With Agency Inputs)