This comes a day after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance passed the floor test.
Congress MLA Nana Patole was elected unopposed as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker after his BJP challenger Kisan Kathore withdrew his nomination ahead of the voting on Sunday.
This comes a day after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance passed the floor test on Saturday.
Patole was nominated by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine for Assembly Speaker's post. Even with the opposition challenge, he was expected to sail through comfortably.
Congratulating Patole on his election, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in the assembly, "Nana Patole has also come from a farmer family and I am very confident that he will give justice to everyone."
Speaking in the assembly, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis said, "We had nominated Kisan Kathore for the post of assembly speaker, but in the all-party meeting, other parties requested us and it has been a tradition that the speaker is elected unopposed, so we accepted the request and withdrew our candidate's name."
Nana Patole has been elected to state assembly from Sakoli seat. He was earlier elected as a BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondiya constituency in 2014 but the quit the party in 2017. He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election against BJP's Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.
Senior NCP leader and state minister Chagan Bhujbal said the Opposition withdrew the name "to keep the dignity of Assembly intact."
Earlier, Opposition also filled the form for the post of Assembly Speaker, but after a request by other MLAs and to keep the dignity of Assembly intact, they have taken back the name. Now, the election of Speaker to happen unopposed," Bhujbal said.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil who had announced Kathore's name on Saturday said the nomination was withdrawn on the request of the ruling alliance.
"BJP had nominated Kisan Kathore for the post of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, yesterday. But, after incumbents' request, we have decided to withdraw Kathore's candidature," Patil said.
On Saturday, 169 MLAs vote in favour of the motion of confidence, as all the 105 MLAs of the BJP had walked out of the 288-member House.
Four MLAs abstained, pro tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil said.
While the BJP is the single-largest party with 105 MLAs, the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress have 56, 54 and 44 members, respectively. They have 154 MLAs in total but have the support of smaller parties including the Samajwadi Party and some independents.
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