The Maharashtra assembly on Sunday elected its speaker a day after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance passed the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly amid protests led by the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
Former Kisan Wing leader Nana Patole, the joint candidate of Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance was elected unopposed as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, while the BJP who named Kisan Kathore as its nominee earlier, has withdrawn his name today.
Patole was the first BJP MP to rebel against his party during Prime Minister Modi’s first term between 2014 to 2019.
The floor test began with high drama on Saturday as the BJP members, led by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, walked out just before voting.
Fadnavis alleged that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other ministers were sworn-in in an “illegal” way.
Fadnavis also objected against the replacement of BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar as the pro tem speaker with NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil.
Thackeray took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Thursday at Shivaji Park in Mumbai in a sprawling ceremony attended by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, DMK chief MK Stalin, MNS Chief Raj Thackeray, Chairman of Reliance industries Mukesh Ambani among other top politicians and industrialists from Maharashtra and rest of India.
On Tuesday, Fadnavis resigned shortly after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar quit as his deputy.
The resignations came after the Supreme Court ordered an immediate floor test, to be telecast live, so that BJP’s Fadnavis could prove his majority in the assembly.
The BJP-led government fell within four days of being sworn in on Saturday.
The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress formed the government after the Shiv Sena fell out with ally BJP over sharing the chief ministerial post.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 105 seats. The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress won 56, 54 and 44 seats, respectively, in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
