Politics

Eknath Shinde government’s score big in speaker election, facing floor test on Monday. 10 points

July 3, 2022
Bharat Times

Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde during the swearing-in ceremony as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on June 30. (Image: PTI)

First time BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar became the youngest Speaker of the country after winning the election with 164 votes.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has his next test set for Monday with a trust vote after successfully leading a rebellion to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government. His first Test was on Sunday, but Shinde got a big win as BJP’s Rahul Narvekar was elected speaker during the two-day special session of the assembly.

The four-day old new Shiv Sena-BJP government will now face a floor test on the second day of the special assembly session. Earlier, however, Narvekar and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-backed candidate Rajan Salvi went head to head after the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction sealed the assembly. Narvekar, who became an MLA for the first time, is the youngest Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the country.

Here’s a look at all the activities of the first day of the two-day special assembly session in Maharashtra:

  1. At the age of 45, first-time BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar became the youngest Speaker of the Assembly in the country when he secured 164 votes to win the election for the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the first day of its special session. Uddhav-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi got 107 votes. Narvekar is the son-in-law of NCP leader Ramraje Naik, who is the chairman of the Legislative Council.
  2. NCP MLA Narhari Jirwal, who could not vote as he was the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, said after the counting of votes that some Shiv Sena MLAs had voted against the party whip. Its recording should be investigated and necessary action should be taken against them.
  3. Of the 287 MLAs, 271 voted, while three MLAs – Rais Sheikh, Abu Azmi (both of the Samajwadi Party) and Shah Farooq (AIMIM) – abstained from voting. A total of 12 MLAs did not participate in the election of Speaker in the House. Two of them – Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak (of BJP) are suffering from serious ailments while two other NCP MLAs Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in jail in various cases of money laundering. Four other NCP MLAs – Dattatreya Bharane, Anna Bansode, Nilesh Lanke and Babandada Shinde – did not attend. Two Congress MLAs Praneeti Shinde and Jitesh Antapurkar also did not attend the session. AIMIM MLA Mufti Mohammad Ismail also did not attend the session.
  4. Senior Congress leader and former minister Balasaheb Thorat congratulated Narvekar and said, “The speaker was elected in a transparent manner. This is what we have been demanding from the Governor for a long time. It seems that the governor was sleeping for one and a half years. Earlier this year, leaders of the then ruling MVA (including Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) urged Koshyari to clear the schedule for the election of the Speaker during the budget session in March.
  5. Before the session began, the Shinde faction sealed the Legislature Party’s office in the Vidhan Bhawan. A paper with a plastic tape was pasted on the closed doors of the office of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party, in which a message in Marathi read, “Office is closed as per the instructions of Shiv Sena Legislature Party.
  6. Shiv Sena leader and former cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray hit out at the Shinde-led government over tight security arrangements for rebel Shiv Sena MLAs as they were entering the Vidhan Bhawan complex from a luxury hotel nearby. The rebel MLAs were staying in a hotel in South Mumbai.
  7. It was Shiv Sena vs Shiv Sena as the fight between the two factions intensified. Both sides issued separate whips to the legislators to vote in favor of their candidates during the elections. The Shinde group voted in favor of Narvekar as the speaker, while 16 MLAs from the Thackeray camp voted against him.
  8. Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu said some of its MLAs have violated the party’s directives by voting against their candidate. Prabhu also said in the House that, “We have given letters to Jirwal to about 39 MLAs of Shiv Sena who have violated the party’s instructions.”
  9. Rebel MLA Deepak Kesarkar said, ‘A letter has been given to the Deputy Speaker against us. We had issued whip to the remaining 16 MLAs not only with us. However, Jirwal said that he has received a letter from Shiv Sena (Thackeray group) regarding non-compliance of party whip by some MLAs.
  10. The Maharashtra Secretariat approved CM Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party and Bharat Gogavale as the Chief Whip. But, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said mid-term elections are likely in the state as the Shinde-led government may fall in the next six months. He made this statement while addressing NCP MLAs and other party leaders. An NCP leader who attended the meeting quoted Pawar as saying, “The newly formed government in Maharashtra may fall in the next six months, so everyone should be prepared for the mid-term polls.” The veteran politician, who was instrumental in the formation of the MVA government, also pointed out that the failure of this experiment would lead to many rebel MLAs returning to their parent party.

(with PTI inputs)

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