Maha: First-time MLA Narvekar is BJP nominee for Speaker post

mumbai: First-time BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar on Friday filed his nomination as the party candidate for the post of Maharashtra Assembly speaker, election for which, if required, will be held on July 3.

The Congress, which was part of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, sought to know how Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari can allow the Speaker's election now when he did not give consent for the process when the Shiv Sena-led alliance was in power. A communique issued by the state legislature secretariat to Assembly members said election to the post of the Speaker of the House will be held on July 3. Nominations for the post will be accepted till 12 noon on July 2.

Narvekar, the MLA from Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai, filed the nomination for the post of Assembly Speaker, an official said. Election for the post, if needed, will be held on July 3, when a special two-day session of the Assembly, called to allow new Eknath Shinde-led government to prove its majority, begins.

The opposition MVA alliance is yet to announce its candidate for the position, which has been lying vacant since Congress MLA Nana Patole resigned from the post in February last year. Narvekar is the son-in-law of NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, who is chairman of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and had been earlier associated with the Sharad Pawar-led party and also the Shiv Sena.