Maha floor test on Mon, BJP to get speaker post

MUMBAI: A two-day special session of the Maharashtra Assembly has been convened on July 3 to elect a new speaker and for chief minister Eknath Shinde to prove his government’s majority on the floor of the house.

Ahead of the session the BJP fielded its Colaba MLA Rahul Narvekar for the election of the Speaker while the opposition has not announced any candidate so far. The speaker’s election is necessitated as the speaker’s post is vacant and the Eknath Shinde faction has expressed no confidence in the deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal who is from the NCP. The matter is now in the Supreme Court.

Getting their Speaker is crucial for the BJP-Shinde alliance ahead of the trust vote to ensure that the Shinde faction is recognised as the real Shiv Sena in the House else the whip of the Thackeray faction will disqualify the breakaway MLAs.

On Friday, a vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala refused to grant interim relief to the Uddhav Thackeray camp which had petitioned the Supreme Court to stop Eknath Shinde from functioning as CM as the matter of the deputy speaker was still before the court.

The biggest problem before the Shinde faction is that deputy speaker Zirwal has already recognised Sunil Prabhu as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena. Since the Supreme Court has directed all parties maintain a status quo, the rebels too will have to follow the whip issued by Sunil Prabhu for Speaker’s election.

To bypass this the BJPShinde alliance has decided to adopt voice voting for the election of Speaker which will make it difficult to ascertain who violated the whip, said BJP insiders. The voice vote has been allowed by Governor Koshyari.

“Speaker’s election will be held through voice vote. Once the new Speaker is elected, the House will decide when the floor test will be conducted (July 3 or 4),” said principal secretary, state legislature, Rajendra Bhagwat. The last date for filing nominations for Speaker’s post is until 12 pm on Saturday, July 2.

Congress leader Balsaheb Thorat questioned the Governor’s decision to go ahead with the Speaker election saying that when the MVA government had wanted to hold Speaker’s election after the poste fell vacant on account of the resignation of Nana Patole who took over state Congress chief, he refused to act saying the case was sub-judice. “I want to know on what basis has he allowed the Speaker’s election now,” said Thorat.

The floor test is will held on Sunday and will decide the fate of the Shinde-Fadnavis government, and also what happens to the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the Assembly.

Chief minister Shinde who held a meeting with rebel MLAs in Goa told reporters that his government has the support of 170 MLAs. “The Governor has called a special session and we will succeed on the floor of the House,” he claimed.