Mumbai: In its first major show of strength, the newly sworn-in Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis managed to get their candidate – Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narvekar – elected as the assembly speaker.
The speaker’s position which has been vacant since February 2021 when then speaker and Congress leader Nana Patole resigned from post, will now be occupied by Narvekar, who got 164 votes in the assembly. Making up the 164 votes are those by 105 MLAs of BJP, 39 MLAs of Shiv Sena who decamped early last month, a few independent MLAs and legislators from smaller political parties.
Narvekar, an MLA from Mumbai’s Colaba constituency is, at 45, the youngest person to be elected as the state assembly speaker. Fadnavis has claimed that he could perhaps be the “youngest in the country.”
Rajan Salvi, the Shiv Sena candidate from former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s camp, managed 107 votes.
MLAs on both sides took jibes at each other at the special session of the assembly. Shinde, who had all along claimed that he had most Sena MLAs on his side, claimed that today’s decision had proven “who the real Sena was”.
“Over the past few weeks, many had claimed that the (rebelling) Sena MLAs are on their side and are waiting to return to Mumbai. It is evident now; all of that was a lie. I had even said, show me who wants to return (from Guwahati) and I will personally arrange for their flight ticket back. But no names were ever mentioned,” Shinde said in his speech.
Fadnavis too congratulated Narvekar and called today’s result “the first sign of success” for the new Shinde-led Sena and BJP government.
‘Even Kasab wasn’t given such security’
MLAs of Shinde faction who have been hopping luxury hotels in various BJP-led states (Gujarat, Assam and then Goa) for over three weeks finally came to Mumbai today to participate in the speaker’s election process. They travelled from Goa to Mumbai amid heavy security. These MLAs are currently being put up at a luxurious hotel in Mumbai.
Commenting on the security provided to the rebel kingmaker MLAs, Aaditya Thackeray, a Sena MLA and dethroned Uddhav Thackeray’s son, said, “Even Kasab (a Pakistani gunman) was not provided this kind of elaborate security.”
He further asked: “Why are you scared? Is someone going to run away? Why so much fear?”
‘ED, ED, ED’
Former deputy minister Ajit Pawar, taking a swipe at Shinde, said that while he was happy that Narvekar had been elected to such an important position, he wondered why the new chief minister needed to do all this. “Shinde ji could have just whispered into my ears that he is eyeing the CM’s position. We would have ensured he had it. Why did he have to struggle so much?” Pawar said, laughing.
Many in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government have claimed that several Sena MLAs have gone with Shinde only because they feared they would be implicated in criminal cases and central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate would be used to harass them. So, when rebel Sena MLA Yamini Jadhav stood up to cast her vote, many from the MVA alliance shouted “ED, ED, ED”, hinting at the recent raid by the central agency at her residence.
#WATCH | Maharashtra: MLAs on Opposition benches shouted "ED, ED" when Shiv Sena Yamini Yashwant Jadhav registered her head count for the Speaker's election in the Assembly.
(Source: Maharashtra Assembly) pic.twitter.com/riKFAjmZDQ
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2022
In the 288-member House, as many as 12 stayed away from the session today.
Jayant Patil fixates on former deputy speaker’s ‘tribal’ identity
Nationalist Congress Party legislator Narhari Zirwal, a deputy speaker during the MVA government, was not eligible to vote because of his post. Zirwal, a three-term MLA from Dindori – a constituency reserved for Scheduled tribe candidates – had been handling the state assembly since Patole resigned to take over as the Congress’s state president.
The NCP, which is largely headed by the numerically dominant and feudal Maratha community, however, could not go beyond Zirwal’s tribal identity. While speaking on the floor of the assembly, Jayant Patil, a Maratha MLA from NCP, said, “Despite his tribal identity, Zirwal did a good job of working as a deputy speaker.”
Many raised objections to Patil’s utterance, however, Patil repeated the line several times.
Absent MLAs
NCP’s Ajit Deshmukh and Nawab Mallik could not attend the assembly owing to their incarceration in two separate alleged money laundering cases.
Praniti Shinde, a Congress MLA from Solapur, who is reportedly out of India, too missed the voting today. Dilip Mohite, an MLA from Khed constituency in western Maharashtra, didn’t attend the proceedings either. Mohite, who had openly expressed his discontent with the party leaders, had not participated in the MLC elections that took place earlier last month, either. Anna Bansode, another MLA from Chinchwad, where NCP exerts a strong hold, skipped today’s voting.
Two Samajwadi Party MLAs – Rais Shaikh and Abu Azmi – and AIMIM’s Shah Farukh abstained from voting. MLA Mufti Mohammad Ismail didn’t show up. SP’s Azmi, while speaking on the floor of assembly said that his party is in the minority and appealed to the speaker to ensure that his voice is heard just as much as those from the numerically majority parties.
Today’s voting for the speaker was part of the two-day special session called by Shinde and Fadnavis soon after they were sworn in on June 30. While Shinde has established that he has his support base intact by managing 164 votes in his and BJPs favour, the real test for him will be to prove who the Shiv Sena party really belongs to.
Both Shinde and Thackeray wings of the Sena issued whips demanding MLAs vote for their own candidates. While Sena has maintained that Shinde can’t claim to be Sena anymore and that they would seek his disqualification, Shinde has stressed that he has the support of two-thirds of the party’s MLAs.
Note: This article has been updated since publication with background, subsequent developments and additional details.