Mumbai: With no MVA candidate having filed a nomination for the post, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar was on Monday elected unopposed as the assembly Speaker for the second consecutive term.
Sena (UBT) MLAs staged a boycott of the election by walking out. Narwekar had in Jan held the Eknath Shinde-led Sena faction as the “real Shiv Sena”, giving legitimacy to his claim on the party. “We had to support the Speaker’s election to happen unopposed, respecting the custom and tradition [of the House]. But the name that came up was of Rahul Narwekar. In the last two-and-a-half years, he engaged in partisan politics. We need a guarantee that injustice will not be repeated,” said Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray.
CM Devendra Fadnavis, who proposed Narwekar’s name for the post, expressed happiness at his re-election. “Rahul Narwekar will be the first person who became Speaker in his first term as MLA (in July 2022) and then he became the Speaker for the second time. Special thanks to Nana Patole (who quit as Speaker to become state Congress chief) because he paved the way for Narwekar to become the Speaker,” he said.
Deputy CM Eknath Shinde lauded Narwekar for his work in the previous term. “We said we would get more than 200 MLAs. We fulfilled that promise. Then Ajit Pawar came. That was a bonus; we became 237. People gave a huge mandate to Mahayuti,” he said. “Now, the number of opposition members is worrying. This should not have happened. At such a time, the Speaker’s responsibility is important.”
The Speaker will play a crucial role in deciding if the principal opposition party gets the leader of opposition post since it hasn’t got even 10% of the seats in the House.
Referring to Narwekar’s verdict in the ‘real Shiv Sena’ case, Shinde said, “…No matter how much pressure we put on him, he gave the right decision. There were many allegations against Shiv Sena as well as the [Speaker’s] decision. We did not pay attention to them.”
Narwekar had drawn opposition ire over his handling of the disqualification cases of Sena and NCP MLAs post splits in the parties. Referring to that, NCP (SP) MLA Jayant Patil said, “The Speaker worked for a long time as a tribunal. He gave the verdict; SC is still considering his decision.”
Meanwhile, a motion for a trust vote in favour of Mahayuti govt was moved by Sena’s Uday Samant, NCP’s Dilip Walse-Patil, BJP’s Sanjay Kute and MLA Ravi Rana. It was passed by a voice vote.
