The election of the next state Legislative Assembly Speaker will be held through voice votes instead of secret ballots. The decision was taken by the rules committee of the legislature on Wednesday. The election is likely to be held in the Winter Session of the legislature scheduled to commence from December 22.
At present, the election of the Assembly Speaker is held by secret ballots. The last election for the post was held in 1999. Since then, the Assembly Speaker has been elected unopposed.
Following the resignation of Congress’ Nana Patole as Assembly Speaker earlier this year, the party has been demanding that a new Speaker be elected.
While the election has not been held till now due to a lack of consensus among the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies, Patole, the state Congress president, has said that the election will be held in the Winter Session.
“Now, the rules have been amended for the election and it can be held in the Winter Session. However, the final decision is yet to be taken by the MVA allies,” said a minister.
Sources in the Opposition said that the MVA government has doubts that it may not be able to get 169 votes, which were received during the trust vote of the MVA government in December 2019. However, the ruling parties have maintained that the Assembly Speaker is elected through voice votes in many states. So, the decision has been taken to amend the rules accordingly, sources added.