BJP’s Rahul Narwekar is new Maha assembly speaker, Shinde floor test tomorrow

The state assembly in Maharashtra voted to elect the new speaker on Sunday days after Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the new chief minister and the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as his deputy.

BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar – a first-time legislator – has got a majority of votes in the 288-member house. The counting of votes is still on.

A two-day special session of the state assembly started with the speaker’s election as the first thing on the agenda. Rahul Narwekar of the BJP – the MLA from Colaba – was the ruling coalition’s pick for the post, and the numbers were in his favour. Narwekar, a first-time MLA, was seen as a surprise choice by many for the post.

To contest against him, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine have fielded Sena’s Rajan Salvi, a Thackeray loyalist. Earlier, under a power-sharing arrangement sealed in 2019, a Congress leader had to be picked for the post. However, with Uddhav Thackeray witnessing the biggest rebellion in Shiv Sena in recent times, his allies backed a Sena leader for the post.

After a voice vote, deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal asked for a headcount. The headcount restarted over some confusion over the votes of two BJP members – Govardhan Sharma and Prakash Patil Bharsakhale.

Sunday’s session is the first time that the legislators – across party lines – gathered after the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. “BJP candidate Rahul Narwekar’s name will be proposed for the speaker’s post. First, there’ll be voice vote. If someone asks for division of votes then it will be done, and the elected speaker will take charge. We expect our candidate to get 165-170 votes,” Maharashtra BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar told ANI on Sunday morning ahead of the speaker’s election.

The election comes a day before Eknath Shinde is expected to take the numbers’ test after taking charge. Shinde’s 10-day long rebellion culminated into the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government and his resignation from the chief minister’s post.

Ekanth Shinde has support of over 50 MLAs, including 38 Sena rebels. The BJP, meanwhile, has 105 MLAs in the 288-member house.

Shinde and Fadnavis on Saturday night held a meeting – seen as a show of strength – as the rebels returned from Goa to Mumbai

Shiv Sena’s strength has come down from 55 after the revolt against “unnatural” alliance with the NCP and the Congress.

The Congress’s Nana Patole, who was the speaker of the state assembly, had quit last year and then Narhari Zirwal, the deputy speaker, was discharging duty in the capacity.