BJP candidate, Rahul Narvekar, elected as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

Rahul Narvekar, BJP's candidate, was elected as the new Maharashtra Assembly Speaker on Sunday.An advocate by profession, Narwekar, had been associated with the Sena as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the past, joined the BJP in the run-up to the October 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The saffron party fielded him from the upmarket Colaba constituency in South Mumbai, which he won.Amid chants of "Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai", Narvekar took charge as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly.During the session, Samajwadi Party (SP) abstained from voting against the BJP candidate. Both its MLAs Abu Azmi and Raees Shaikh kept sitting during the head count.Notably, AIMIM also abstained from voting against BJP's Narwekar.A total of three MLAs abstained from voting in the Assembly including AIMIM's Shah Farukh Anwar, SP's two MLAs while one AIMIM MLA was absent from the House.In the two-day special session of the Assembly beginning Sunday, the Shinde-Fadnavis government will have to prove its majority on the Floor of the House on Monday in Vote of Confidence.Notably, Shinde, who led the revolt against Shiv Sena chief and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, was sworn in as the Chief Minister while former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who was seen as the front-runner for the top post in the government, was sworn in as Shinde's Deputy.The post of the Speaker went vacant in the Assembly after Congress' Nana Patole resigned from the office in February 2021, to take guard as the party's state unit chief. In the absence of a Speaker, Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal was playing the part of an acting Speaker in the House.Shiv Sena MLA and Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Rajan Salvi was the candidate of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine for the Speaker's election. Salvi lost with 107 votes.The Speaker election in the Maharashtra Assembly kicked off on Sunday after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other MLAs arrived in the state Assembly in Mumbai.Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other BJP MLAs also arrived at the state Assembly.With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.