The election of ruling BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly became a mere formality on Sunday, after the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) chose not to put up any candidate against him.
Narwekar -- accompanied by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar – on Sunday filed his nomination for the Speaker’s election scheduled for Monday.
Given that no one from the Opposition filed nomination for the elections to the Speaker’s post, Narwekar will be declared elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday.
Narwekar, who was the speaker in the 14th assembly for two and a half years, is known for his controversial rulings on the disqualification pleas of Shiv Sena and NCP.
It may be recalled that on February 15, 2024, Narwekar had declared the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the "real NCP", while dismissing pleas seeking disqualification of the MLAs belonging to both the factions.
Narwekar’s ruling had come close on the heels of the Election Commission’s February 6 2024 order recognising the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the “real NCP”, giving it control over the party’s name and “clock” symbol, the Speaker ruled that between the two feuding factions, the Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed “overwhelming majority”.
Narwekar’s ruling on NCP was akin to the one he gave on January 10, 2024 in the case of the Shiv Sena, when he had ruled that the Shiv Sena-led by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde was the “real Shiv Sena” and not the one headed by former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray.
Though none of the Opposition parties have the requisite numbers to claim LoP’s post, it is quite unlikely that Narwekar will consider the Opposition MVA’s request for nominating a Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Assembly.