On July 3, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Narwekar was elected as the speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. Narwekar got 164 out of the total 288 votes. The voting was done by a headcount instead of ballot voting. During the process, every member of the Legislative assembly spoke up his/her name and number in support of the candidate.
Narwekar had filed his nomination for the post of the speaker on July 2. The seat of the speaker was lying vacant since last year after the resignation of Congress leader Nana Patole from the post. Since then, Narhari Zirwal, deputy speaker, has been acting speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
Who is Rahul Narvekar?
Rahul Narvekar is Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA from the Colaba constituency in Mumbai. Before joining BJP, he was part of Shiv Sena for 15 years and NCP for around five years. In 2019, he joined BJP just before the state elections.
45-years-old Narvekar comes from a political family. His father, Suresh Narvekar, was a municipal councillor from Colaba, and his brother Makarand Narvekar is currently serving as a municipal councillor from the same seat. His father-in-law Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar is an NCP leader. He is currently serving as chairman and speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Council.
In the 2019 state elections, he won the assembly seat with a margin of over 15,000 votes and defeated Ashok Jagtap of Congress.
Second blow for MVA after Eknath Shinde was elected as the CM of Maharashtra
This is the second blow in quick succession for the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance after losing the CM chair. Following the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray from the CM post, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra with support from BJP. Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis was elected as the new Deputy Chief Minister.