Wonder if Maharashtra speaker's election held with proper procedure: Shiv Sena

Rahul Narvekar at Vidhan Bhavan. Pic/Sameer Abedi

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant on Sunday wondered whether the proper Constitutional procedure was followed to elect the new Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly and said questions are raised regarding how the Shiv Sena rebel faction is trying to appropriate the original party.

Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was on Sunday elected Speaker on the first day of its special session with MLAs from the Eknath Shinde faction also voting in his favour.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes.

"The dispute between the 39 rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena and 16 legislators who stayed with the original party will be resolved only in the Supreme Court. There are several questions of legitimacy the way the Eknath Shinde government came to power (in alliance with BJP) and carried out the Speaker's election. Did the entire procedure take place within the framework of the Constitution?" Sawant, also chief spokesperson of Shiv Sena, questioned.

Also Read: Will the real Shiv Sena please stand up?

He said the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had even issued a whip (asking all the MLAs to vote in favour of Salvi) but the rebel MLAs did not budge.

"We have complained against them to the Speaker," he said.

Commenting on Shinde-led Sena MLAs' stand, Sawant said, "This may be the first such case wherein the rebels are calling their faction as the original party."

Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the party, had issued separate whips to the party legislators to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the state Assembly Speaker's election.

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