Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Narwekar was on Sunday elected as Speaker of the Maharashtra assembly, placing the new ruling alliance in a strong position to clear the floor test in the house on Monday.
Narwekar, a first-time lawmaker from Colaba in south Mumbai, was elected after securing 164 votes in favour and 107 against, which showed that the newly formed alliance led by chief minister Eknath Shinde, leader of the breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, has a clear majority in the 288-member assembly.
Shinde formed a new government in the state in alliance with the BJP after creating a vertical split in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the subsequent collapse of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.
Speaking for the first time as chief minister in the assembly, Shinde said no MLA was forced to join him in the rebellion against the Sena leadership.
“Some people were claiming that 10 to 15 MLAs are in their contact to which I challenged them to disclose those names and they will be sent back on my own expenses,” Shinde said, expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for “showing a big heart.”
{{/usCountry}}“Some people were claiming that 10 to 15 MLAs are in their contact to which I challenged them to disclose those names and they will be sent back on my own expenses,” Shinde said, expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for “showing a big heart.”
{{/usCountry}}His remarks were in reference to the BJP’s decision to concede the chief minister’s position to him even though his faction has just 39 MLA compared with BJP’s 106. Shinde will take a floor test on Monday.
Barring deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal of the Nationalist Congress Party (CP), 16 members abstained from voting or were absent during the election in the state legislature.
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Of them, seven were from the NCP, including two MLAs, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, who are currently in jail, and two Congress MLAs, Praniti Shinde and Jitesh Antapurkar, Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khaliq of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). Three MLAs abstained from voting, Abu Asim Azmi and Rais Shaikh of the Samajwadi Party and Farooq Anwar Shah of the AIMIM.
The Shinde alliance showed its majority by securing 164 votes, way above the 145 needed for a simple majority in the house of 288. One seat is vacant as Sena MLA Ramesh Latke died in May this year.
Of the 164 votes, Narwekar got 104 votes from the BJP as the party’s two members, Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, could not come for voting owing to ill health, 39 votes from the Shinde-led rebel faction, 12 votes from independents, three votes from Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, two votes from Prahar Janshakti Paksha and one vote each from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, PWP and Jansurajya Shakti Paksha.
Opposition candidate Rajan Salvi got 46 votes from NCP, 42 votes from Congress, 16 votes from Shiv Sena and one vote each from CPI (M) and Swambhimani Paksha.
An MLA from the Colaba assembly constituency, Narwekar was seen as a surprise choice by many for the post, being a first-time legislator. He is considered close to deputy chief minister Fadnavis. Contesting against him, the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress combine had fielded Rajan Salvi, a Sena MLA from Rajapur assembly constituency and a Thackeray loyalist. Salvi managed to secure 107 votes, which include votes from a few independent MLAs.
When the assembly convened for the day, legislators from the Shinde group and the BJP trooped in with saffron turbans and shouted slogans.
NCP leader Jayant Patil referred to how governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had delayed the request of the erstwhile MVA government to conduct elections for the Speaker’s post but had acceded when a similar request was made by the present regime.
“We can now see what he was waiting for. If he had expressed this earlier, Eknathrao (Shinde) would have done this (the coup) then,” he added in his acerbic style. Patil urged Koshyari to approve the names of 12 nominees to the state legislative council approved by the MVA government and said this was “the last chance for the governor to prove that he treats everyone equally.”
The motion for Narvekar’s election was moved by Chandrakant Patil of the BJP and was seconded by his party’s Girish Mahajan. Chetan Tupe and Sangram Thopte of the NCP did likewise for Salvi.
Deputy speaker Zirwal asked for the headcount for polling, which was restarted after some confusion over the votes of two BJP MLAs, Govardhan Sharma and Prakash Patil Bharsakle. Considering Sunil Prabhu as chief whip of Shiv Sena, Zirwal said the Sena MLAs voted against the party whip, but did not give any ruling as the matter of their disqualification was already pending before the Supreme Court.
“Shiv Sena voted by going against the party whip in front of me,” Zirwal said. “Video shooting of the entire incident is also available.”
On Saturday, the Shinde-led faction issued a whip, considering which new Speaker Narwekar said that 15 Shiv Sena MLAs voted against the party whip, without giving any ruling in the case.
Following a complaint from the Shiv Sena, deputy Speaker Zirwal started a disqualification process against rebel Shiv Sena MLAs. It was challenged before the Supreme Court, which stayed the process and has kept the next hearing on July 11.
The new Speaker will set aside all decisions taken by the deputy speaker in the past and will recognize Eknath Shinde as legislative party leader and Bharat Gogawale as chief whip, after which the membership of 15 Shiv Sena MLA will come under threat as they can be disqualified for going against the party whip, BJP leaders said, declining to be named.
The decision can also be communicated to the apex court as the Speaker has the power and the MVA government has lost the majority, they said.
Sena MLA and chief whip Sunil Prabhu said that it was not known how long the new government will survive by referring to the whip violated by the rebel MLAs of the party.
“We are very proud that one of the young MLAs has become the speaker today,” he said in the assembly. “Unfortunately, I don’t know how long you will stay in that position because the whip issued by us (Shiv Sena) was violated by 39 MLAs, who trampled democracy.”
Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said the rebel MLAs had lost the “morality test” by voting against the Shiv Sena. “This is a morality test for the MLAs, which they have failed,” he said. “They could not look in our eyes and were avoiding us today, but how will they avoid their voters when they go seeking votes?”
(With inputs from Dhaval Kulkarni)