Maha battle: Speaker post for BJP, floor test today

Mumbai: A day ahead of the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly, the new Shinde SenaBJP government got a shot in the arm with BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar elected Speaker of the state Assembly. Interestingly, his father-in-law Ramraje Naik of the NCP is chairperson of the Legislative Council with Maharashtra becoming the only state where the presiding officers of the Legislature are in-laws.

Narvekar (45) is also the youngest ever Assembly Speaker in the country, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said. He polled 164 votes while defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi got 107 votes.

The two-day special session of the House got underway at Vidhan Bhavan on Sunday. After the vote count, Deputy Speaker Zirwal said, “Some Sena MLAs voted against the party whip. Its recording should be verified and action should be taken against them.”

Before the session commenced, the Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena faction sealed the legislative party office in Vidhan Bhavan. A paper was stuck on the closed doors of the legislative party office with a message in Marathi saying, “The office is closed as per instructions of the Shiv Sena legislative party.”