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Maharashtra government, BJP face off over Assembly Speaker’s election today
On Saturday, the Congress announced that its MLA Nana Patole will be the coalition’s candidate for the election for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s post, while the BJP named Kisan Kathore as its nominee.
A day after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government comfortably won a floor test, Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP coalition will face off with the opposition BJP on Sunday for the election of the Assembly Speaker.
On Saturday, the Congress announced that its MLA Nana Patole will be the coalition’s candidate for the election for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s post, while the BJP named Kisan Kathore as its nominee.
Patole represents Sakoli Assembly segment in Vidarbha while Kathore is the BJP MLA from Murbad in Thane district.
Both Patole and Kathore are in their fourth term as lawmakers.
Patole, who was with the Congress earlier, quit the party and won 2014 Lok Sabha election on the BJP’s ticket. He returned to the Congress in 2017 following differences with the BJP’s top brass.
Kathore became MLA for the first time in 2004 on NCP ticket from Ambernath in Thane district.He went on to win 2009, 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections from Murbad. He contested the 2014 and 2019 elections on BJP’s ticket.
NCP MLA Dilip Walse Patil was on Friday appointed as pro-tem Speaker to conduct the floor test. He replaced BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar who was earlier this week appointed to the post to administer oath to the newly elected lawmakers.
In the floor test on Saturday, 169 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly voted in favour of the government while the BJP’s 105 MLAs staged a walkout.
The floor test capped a week of tumultuous developments in Maharashtra that saw Devendra Fadnavis being sworn as chief minister in early November 23 with NCP’s Ajit Pawar as his deputy. Fadnavis’ second term as CM lasted barely 80 hours as he chose to resign on November 26 instead of facing a floor test that the Supreme Court had ordered.
Following his resignation, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi proposed Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s name as chief minister of the coalition government. Thackeray and six other ministers from the three parties were sworn in on November 28.
