The suspense over who will be the next speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was finally over on Sunday when BJP nominated MLA Rahul Narvekar for the speaker’s post. Rahul Narvekar was also the speaker in the preview Mahayuti government for 2.5 years. In the current mahayuti 2.0 government he will continue for the next five years.
The suspense over the speaker’s post had started when Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the third time on 5th December at Mumbai’s Azad maidan where PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the two central observers Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, along with several other leaders, CM’s and VVIP’s were present. Both the parties of the Mahayuti Shivsena and the BJP were insisting for the speaker’s post, but the BJP nominated MLA Rahul Narvekar for this top post.
The speaker’s election will be held today and it will be followed by trust vote of the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government which was sworn-in on December 5 at Mumbai’s historic Azad maidan. Rahul Narvekar, the Speaker in the last assembly, was accompanied by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister’s Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. Maharashtra State BJP chief Chandrashekar Bawankule and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil were also present while filling his nomination at the Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai.
Senior BJP leader MLA Kalidas Kolambkar from Mumbai’s Wadala constituency was serving as the pro-tem speaker of the assembly to administer the oath to 288 newly-elected MLAs which took place for 2 days on 7th and 8th December. BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar from Mumbai’s colaba constituency will be elected as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker unopposed as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties refused to file nomination for the election, set to be held today.
