It needs the support of 145 MLAs in the Assembly; Both the factions of Shiv Sena have violated the whip issued by the other faction for the Speaker’s election.
It needs the support of 145 MLAs in the Assembly; Both the factions of Shiv Sena have violated the whip issued by the other faction for the Speaker’s election.
Amidst the beginning of a legal battle between the two factions of Shiv Sena – One led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the other led by rebel leader and new chief minister Eknath Shinde – both groups of the party defied the whip issued by the other group for the election of the Speaker in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
A two-day session of the Legislative Assembly was called on Sunday for the election of the new Speaker and a floor test is to be held on Monday. Rahul Narvekar elected as BJP President After securing 164 votes.
The faction led by Mr Shinde supported Mr Narvekar, who got 164 votes against 107 for Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate Rajan Salvi. Mr. Salvi is a Shiv Sena MLA from Rajapur in Ratnagiri district.
The newly-sworn in pair of Mr. Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis face their first test as the Speaker’s election in the Assembly. The new government formed after Mr Shinde rebelled against Shiv Sena president Mr Thackeray will face a vote of confidence on Monday. In the 287-member assembly (the original number is reduced from 288 to one after the death of one Shiv Sena MLA), the government would need 145 MLAs. Considering the events that took place during the Speaker’s vote, the trust vote may be a mere formality.
Criticism of NCP
After the convening of the House on Sunday, Deputy Chairman Narhari Jirwal announced the program of Speaker’s election as per the instructions of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil sarcastically congratulated the governor for flagging off the elections after the formation of the new government. “For more than one-and-a-half years, they did not allow us to hold elections. Now we understand the reason behind it,” Mr. Patil taunted.
BJP MLA Chandrakant Patil moved a motion to nominate Mr. Narvekar for the post, which was supported by Girish Mahajan. The MVA nominated Mr. Salvi as its candidate. The BJP’s proposal was accepted by voice vote and Mr. Jirwal directed to count people in support and opposition.
Of the 287, NCP’s Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are behind bars. With NCP’s Mr Jirwal presiding over the affairs, the party’s Nilesh Lanke, Dilip Mohite, Dattatreya Bharane, Anna Bansode and Babandada Shinde along with two ailing BJP MLAs Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak remained absent. Congress’s Pranati Shinde and Jitesh Antapurkar and AIMIM MLA Mufti Syed were also absent.
Two Samajwadi Party MLAs and one AIMIM MLA abstained from voting. Of the 271 votes cast, 164 were in favor of Mr. Narvekar and 107 against. Three independents – Devendra Bhuyar, Sanjay Shinde and Shankarrao Gadakh – voted in favor of the MVA, while the rest of the independents decided to support the BJP.
youngest speaker
Mr Narvekar, who represents the high-profile Colaba constituency in South Mumbai, is Maharashtra’s youngest Speaker. A lawyer and former Shiv Sena leader, who was Aaditya Thackeray’s mentor in law studies, later joined the NCP and contested from the Maval Lok Sabha seat in 2014. Before the 2019 elections, he joined BJP and contested from Colaba Assembly. constituency. He is the son-in-law of senior NCP leader and Maharashtra Legislative Council Speaker Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar.
Earlier, both the factions of Shiv Sena had issued whips against each other. Mr Shinde faction whip Bharat Gogawale had asked all party MLAs to vote for Mr Narvekar, while Sena whip Sunil Prabhu asked all party MLAs to vote for Mr Salvi.
During the counting of votes, 16 Shiv Sena MLAs voted against the government, while 39 others voted in favor of it in defiance of the whip. At the conclusion of the process, Army Group leader Ajay Choudhary handed over a letter to Mr. Jirwal, listing the names of 39 Sena MLAs who voted against the party’s whip.
The opposition group also later made the same point against the 16 party MLAs. Rebel faction MLA Deepak Kesarkar said that his group can also talk about whip but today was not its time. Mr Narvekar later told the media that he had received letters from both the sides. The office of the Shiv Sena legislature party was closed on Sunday morning claiming that it was ordered by the chief of the legislature party.
Thanks PM, Shah
After Mr. Narvekar’s election, Mr. Shinde thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President JP Nadda and Mr. Fadnavis for giving him the post and also congratulated the Colaba MLA on being elected as the Speaker.
This is the government of Shiv Sena and BJP and we will take it forward. Hindutva Bal Thackeray. The situation is unique in that the ruling MLAs have left power, with about eight ministers accompanying me. On the other side there were big people and I was a small worker of late Bal Thackeray and late Anand Dighe. I thank all the 50 MLAs who stood by me.
Countering this, Mr. Prabhu taunted and asked how long the MLAs would remain in office as they had defied the whip.