Maharashtra: The post of the Speaker had been lying vacant since February last year, when Nana Patole resigned.
The Congress on Sunday welcomed the election of the new Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar, but launched a scathing attack on Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Senior Congressman Balasaheb Thorat said the party had been demanding from Koshyari a fair election but he was sleeping for 1.5 years. Why did the Congress make such a disparaging remark for a constitutional-post holder?
On Sunday, Narwekar became the youngest assembly Speaker in the country. He is just 45 years old. He defeated Shiv Sena's Rajan Salvi by a substantial margin.
The post of the Speaker had been lying vacant since February last year, when Nana Patole resigned.
There had been a tussle between the Governor and the MVA government over the conduct of the Speaker's election.
The previous MVA government had changed the existing rules to allow election of the Speaker through a voice vote. Governor Koshyari had termed the move as unconstitutional and sought legal opinion on the matter.
Earlier this year, MVA had again urged him to approve the schedule of the election. However, the Governor didn't allow the polls.
Thorat rued the delay.
"The Speaker's election took place in a transparent way. This is what we had been demanding with the governor for quite some time. It seems the governor was sleeping for one-and-a-half years?" he said, in a harsh remark.
Explaining the previous government's position on the voice vote, Thorat said they wanted to end secret voting in order to bring transparency to the procedure. He said even the Supreme Court didn't take the decision quickly.
The Governor and the previous government had had an acrimonious relationship since the outset in 2019. The most bitter exchange came during the Coronavirus pandemic over the reopening of temples after lockdown, when the governor had questioned Uddhav
Thackeray's adherence to Hindutva. Thackeray had replied that he didn't need a lecture from anyone on Hindutva.
With inputs from PTI
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 "The previous MVA government had changed the existing rules to allow election of the Speaker. (File)")
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