Amid a tug-of-war for power between the BJP-Eknath Shinde group and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, the stage seems all set for the elections to the coveted post of Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The BJP-Eknath Shinde group has fielded Rahul Narwekar, a first-time BJP MLA from Colaba while the Maha Vikas Aghadi has nominated Rajan Salvi, a three-term Shiv Sena MLA from Rajapur.
The election for the Speaker would be held on Sunday, the first-day of the two-day special session of the Assembly.
On Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is expected to move a confidence motion.
Incidentally, Narwekar (45), is the son-in-law of NCP’s Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, the Chairman of Maharashtra Legislative Council.
Narwekar started off with Shiv Sena and left it in 2014 when he was denied a berth in the Council. Thereafter, he joined the NCP and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from Naval.
Then he moved to BJP and became close to now Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Narwekar was given a ticket from the prestigious Colaba seat of Mumbai, which he won. He comes from a family that has been in politics. His father Suresh Narwekar was a Corporator from Colaba. His brother Makarand Narwekar is a second-term Corporator from Colaba.
Salvi (56), a hard core Shiv Sainik, who is close to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, won the Rajapur seat in Ratnagiri district for the third time in 2019.
(Published 02 July 2022, 07:26 IST)