BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar elected Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

First-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rahul Narvekar was elected as Assembly Speaker in Maharashtra on Sunday, 3 July. Narvekar, the MLA from Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai is the son-in-law of NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, who is chairman of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and had been earlier associated with the Sharad Pawar-led party and also the Shiv Sena.

Narvekar was today elected as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker with 164 votes - a majority of votes in the 288-member house. Shiv Sena legislator Rajan Salvi got 107 votes. The Eknath Shinde-led government will face the test of strength in the Assembly on Monday.

Narwekar took charge as the Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly amid chants of "Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji", "Jai Sri Ram", "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram".

The post of Assembly Speaker was lying vacant since Congress' Nana Patole resigned in February 2021 as he was appointed the party's state unit president. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal was officiating as acting Speaker in the meantime.

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 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.

Samajwadi Party (SP) abstained from voting against BJP candidate Narwekar. Both its MLAs Abu Azmi and Raees Shaikh kept sitting during the head count.

AIMIM also abstained from voting against BJP candidate Narwekar.

Sunday's session is the first time that the legislators - across party lines - gathered after the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led 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 was quoted as saying by news agency 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.

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 also 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.