BJP's Rahul Narwekar to become Maharashtra assembly speaker once more, unopposed

Balasaheb Bharde, a Congress MLA, was the only other person be to be elected speaker twice, in the 1960s

MUMBAI: The BJP’s Colaba MLA Rahul Narwekar is set to be elected speaker of the assembly for the second time, a record hitherto held only by Congress MLA Balasaheb Bharde in the sixties. Narwekar’s appointment will be officially announced on Monday.

Mumbai, India - Dec. 8, 2024:Rahul Narvekar during special assembly session, at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, December 8, 2024. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

On the day of filing nominations for the post of the speaker of the 15th Maharashtra legislative assembly, Narwekar’s was the only application received by returning officer Jitendra Bhole. The opposition does not have the adequate strength to claim the post. Pro-tem speaker Kalidas Kolambkar will complete the procedure by announcing Narwekar’s name in the lower house on the last day of the three-day special session.

The MLA on Sunday claimed that nobody could point a finger at the decisions taken and rulings given by him in his first term as speaker. “The second term too will be dedicated to the people of the state by focusing on justice for them,” he said. “It will be an impartial tenure and I seek the cooperation of all my fellow MLAs in the lower house.”

Narwekar is the second MLA to serve two terms in the speaker’s chair. Balasaheb alias Trimbak Bharde, a Gandhian and Congress leader who represented Shevgaon in Ahmednagar, served as the speaker from 1962 to 1972. Narwekar served a two-and-a-half-year term from July 3, 2022 and was the second-youngest speaker when elected to the post. Shivaraj Chakukar Patil was the youngest speaker of Maharashtra when he was elected to the post in March 1978. He was 42 then.

Narwekar, 47, was a practising lawyer in the Bombay high court and is a two-term MLA from Colaba in South Mumbai. Son-in-law of senior NCP leader and former legislative council chairperson Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, he began his political career as the Shiv Sena spokesperson in 1999. He quit the Sena in 2014 after he was denied a Lok Sabha ticket and joined the NCP, subsequently contesting the Lok Sabha polls unsuccessfully from Maval. In 2019, he joined the BJP and contested from the Colaba assembly constituency, winning as an MLA for the first time.

In his election affidavit in November this year, Narwekar announced his assets as ₹129.81 crore, up from ₹38.09 crore in 2019 and ₹10 crore in 2014. His younger brother Makrand and sister-in-law Harshita were former BMC corporators from Colaba and Cuffe Parade while his father, Suresh Narwekar, was also a councillor from Colaba.

During his tenure, Narwekar delivered two important judgments. The Shiv Sena and NCP had been vertically split in June 2022 and July 2023 respectively and Narwekar, as the speaker, held hearings to decide on the “real” Shiv Sena and NCP on the directions of the Supreme Court. He ruled that the breakaway factions of the Sena under Eknath Shinde and the NCP under Ajit Pawar were the real parties, and the name and symbol of the undivided parties was allotted to them.

The MLA is also heading a committee to look into the constitutional provisions that deal with the defection of MLAs and MPs in the anti-defection law. The committee was announced by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla in January this year.

The Shiv Sena too was reportedly demanding the speaker’s post as part of the power-sharing pact between the three ruling parties. However, the BJP retained the post, and picked Narwekar for it for the second consecutive time.

Another name being considered was that of senior BJP legislator Sudhir Mungantiwar. “But the party leadership thinks that Narwekar is the best choice for the post, given his ruling in the disqualification petitions related to the Shiv Sena and NCP,” said a BJP leader. “Although he was eyeing a ministerial berth, there aren’t enough berths from Mumbai to accommodate him.”

Narwekar was also interested in contesting the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai South, but the seat went to the Shiv Sena in the seat-sharing pact.