Aaditya Thackeray
PTI
Pune: The Shiv Sena (UBT) "boycotted" Rahul Narwekar's election as the Maharashtra assembly Speaker because he had helped run an unconstitutional government during his previous tenure, party leader Aaditya Thackeray said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Narwekar was elected unopposed as the Speaker after the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) decided not to put up a contest.
Narwekar, the BJP MLA from Colaba in Mumbai, has served as the Speaker of the 14th Legislative Assembly for two and a half years.
During his previous tenure, Narwekar had ruled that the party led by Eknath Shinde was the legitimate and real Shiv Sena after the undivided Sena split. He also held that the faction under Ajit Pawar was the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Speaking to the reporters in Mumbai, Aaditya Thackeray said the Shiv Sena (UBT) boycotted Narwekar's election and the induction of new MLAs during a three-day special session of the assembly.
"Everybody knows about the MLAs who escaped to Surat and then Guwahati (after Shiv Sena split in 2022). Everybody has seen how this person, elected as the Speaker (Narwekar), helped run an unconstitutional government in the last two and half years. It is still fresh in our minds how he gave a ruling which affected Shiv Sena and NCP," the Sena (UBT) leader said.
We hope Narwekar won't do injustice as a Speaker in the next five years, he added.