Rahul Narwekar
Credit: PTI Photo
BJP’s Rahul Narwakar was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Narwekar (47) is the former Speaker who had presided over the disqualification cases involving Shiv Sena vs Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP vs NCP (SP) from 2022-24.
Narwakar was the candidate of Maha Yuti, which commands a strength of 235 in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi had not fielded any candidate because of the numbers.
Narwekar is a two-time MLA from the prestigious Colaba seat of Mumbai and had been an MLC previously.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis proposed Narwekar’s name which was seconded by Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar among others.
Fadnavis thanked the opposition for not fielding candidates and maintaining the custom of having the Speaker elected unanimously.
Narwekar, a lawyer by profession, has knowledge of Constitutional issues.
His father, Suresh Narwekar, was a municipal councillor from Mumbai, and his brother Makarand Narwekar was a two-time Corporator from Ward No 227 while his sister-in-law, Harshata Narwekar, was one-term Corporator from Ward No 226.
Earlier, Narwekar was a member of the undivided Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which he left after the party denied him a ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
He joined the undivided Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and contested the general election in 2019 from Maval, which he lost.
Thereafter, ahead of 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, he joined the BJP.