Maharashtra Assembly to elect speaker tomorrow; BJP leader Narwekar files nomination

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narwekar filed his nomination for the post of speaker in the Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday. The assembly will elect a new speaker on Monday.

Narwekar, who was also the Speaker in the last assembly, was accompanied by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar while filing the nomination papers. State BJP chief Chandrashekar Bawankule and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil were also present.

Narwekar won from the Colaba assembly seat and is set to be elected unopposed, as no other candidate has filed a nomination for the election.

Meanwhile, leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavise on Sunday and sought the deputy speaker's post for one of the constituent parties in the opposition alliance.

The leaders told Fadnavis the opposition would allow the speaker of the assembly to be elected unopposed but wanted the ruling side to follow protocol and give them the deputy speaker's post. The Maha Vikas Aghadi constitutes the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP). The delegation was led by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Bhaskar Jadhav. Later, the MVA leaders held a meeting to discuss the alliance's floor strategy in the legislature.