Maharashtra Speaker Polls: BJP Fields First-Time MLA Narvekar, MVA To Put Up Joint Candidate

This will take place when a special two-day session of the Assembly, called to allow Eknath Shinde-led government to prove its majority, begins.

Maharashtra Legislature (File Photo)

New Delhi: First-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rahul Narvekar filed his nomination on Friday as the party’s candidate for the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s post, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Narvekar, the MLA from Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai, filed the nomination for the Assembly Speaker’s post, the news agency reported an official as saying. Narvekar is the son-in-law of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ramraje Nimbalkar.

The election to the Speaker’s post will be held on July 3, said a communique issued by the state legislature secretariat to the members of the Maharashtra Assembly.

This will take place when a special two-day session of the Assembly, called to allow Eknath Shinde-led government to prove its majority, begins.

Meanwhile, the Congress sought to know how Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari can now allow the election of the Speaker when he did not give consent for the process when the Shiv Sena-led alliance was in power.

Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, who was a minister in the erstwhile MVA government, said a delegation of the then-ruling alliance had called on the Governor and requested him to allow holding of the Speaker's election.

“We got a reply (from the Governor) that the matter was sub-judice. The (Bombay) HC had already rejected a petition challenging our decision to amend rules regarding Speaker's election making it through voice vote and it was pending before the Supreme court,” Thorat said.

“Will the Governor allow the election through voice vote or secret ballot?” he asked and showed a Raj Bhavan letter dated March 15 this year rejecting the MVA government’s request to allow the Speaker’s election.

ALSO READ: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde ‘Himself Asked’ Fadnavis To Join Govt As His Deputy: Chandrakant Patil

The Congress was part of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray.

The nominations for the post will be accepted till 12 noon on July 2.

The Opposition MVA alliance is yet to announce its candidate for the position.

The post has been lying vacant since Congress MLA Nana Patole resigned earlier in February last year.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Jayant Patil said the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs will invite disqualification if they don't vote in favour of the MVA candidate in the Speaker’s election.

He added the three-party alliance, consisting of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, will put up a joint candidate for the post.