BJP’s Narwekar pips Sena’s Salvi 164-107 in Maha. Speaker contest

Mumbai: At least 12 MLAs remained absent and three abstained from voting during the election for Maharashtra’s new Assembly Speaker on Sunday.
BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker by securing 164 votes while his opponent Shiv Sena MLA Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Rajan Salvi was able to bag only 107 votes.
The voting was held after the House proceedings began at 11 am.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) abstained from voting against the BJP candidate as Abu Azmi and Raees Shaikh kept sitting during the head count. AIMIM’s lone MLA Farook Shaikh also abstained from the voting.
Meanwhile, 12 members of different political parties were absent from the house. They were seven legislators from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), two from BJP, one from Congress and AIMIM each. Sena MLA Ramesh Latke had recently passed away.
The MLAs of NCP that remained absent were — Nawab Malik, Anil Deshmukh (both languish in jail over money laundering and other charges), Nilesh Lanke, Dilip Mohite, Dattatray Bharane, Baban Shinde and Anna Bansode. From BJP, Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak were absent.
Congress MLA Praniti Shinde, daughter of former union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, and Mufti Ismail of AIMIM were also absent.
Ramesh Latke passed away due to cardiac arrest before the split of Shiv Sena.
Maharashtra assembly has a total strength of 288 members.
The four-day old Shiv Sena-BJP government will face the floor test on July 4 during the Assembly session. (UNI)

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