A special two-day session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly will commence here from July 3, officials said on Friday. A communique issued by the state legislature secretariat to the members of the assembly said the election to the post of the Speaker of the House will be held on July 3. Nominations for the post will be accepted till 12 noon on July 2.
Amid crisis in Sena, MNS plots road to revival
Speaking about the latest political controversy within the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that if Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stuck to the original deal of making a Sena leader CM for 2.5 years there would have been no MVA and a BJP leader would have been CM today. "About what happened yesterday, I had told Amit Shah earlier as well that there should be a Shiv Sena CM for 2.5 years (during Shiv Sena-BJP alliance). Had they done this earlier, there would've been no Maha Vikas Aghadi," he said.
The Supreme Court is set to hear on July 11 a set of pleas, including one filed by the Shiv Sena, seeking the disqualification of the rebel party leaders, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Shiv Sena's Chief Whip Sunil Prabhu on Friday moved the apex court seeking their suspension from the House, till a final decision is taken on their disqualification. Prabhu has also sought an order restraining them from entering the Assembly.
The BJP will conduct a Shok Sabha — a condolence meeting — in Amravati on Monday morning for Umesh Kolhe, 54, who was murdered by seven men allegedly for his posts supporting Nupur Sharma.
BJP leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Anil Bonde had approached the Amravati Police Sunday seeking permission to conduct the Shok Sabha, but the police had denied them the same. The party had told police that at least 2,500 people, including VHP members, were likely to attend the meet.
Kolhe’s younger brother Mahesh told The Indian Express on Sunday, “They never asked for our permission but we do not have any objections. We will be present at the meet and express our thoughts. But I earnestly requested them (BJP and VHP) to keep the Sabha completely peaceful and that there should be no speeches as I want my brother’s soul to rest in peace and do not want a bad name for my family.”
Amid protests over the Eknath Shinde-led government’s plan to move back the proposed Metro 3 car shed to Mumbai’s Aarey forest from Kanjurmarg, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the opposition to the move by some “pseudo-environmentalists” could be “sponsored”.
“There are some genuine environmental activists, while some are pseudo ones. Their opposition to the car shed is likely to be sponsored. Hence, they continue to oppose the construction of the car shed for Metro 3 line,” he told mediapersons on the premises of the Vidhan Bhavan.
“The trees that the state wanted to chop down, have already been felled,” he said, adding that there is no need to fell any more trees. Maintaining that nearly 25 per cent of the work is done, Fadnavis said the car shed can be ready in the next one year. Read more here
Days after taking over the Maharashtra government, the BJP-Shinde group alliance on Sunday passed its first test in the State Assembly with BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar winning the Speaker’s election. While Narwekar polled 164 votes, the rival candidate Rajan Salvi of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena got 107.
Later, with the confidence motion scheduled on Monday, the newly elected Speaker granted relief to the Shinde camp by rejecting the appointment of MLA Ajay Choudhary as the Shiv Sena legislature group leader. He also revoked the appointment of MLA Sunil Prabhu as the Shiv Sena Chief Whip. Choudhary and Prabhu are from the Thackeray camp.
Besides, the Speaker upheld the appointment in 2019 of Eknath Shinde as the Sena legislature group leader. Read more here
To stake claim on the Shiv Sena, two factions of the party — one led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the other by party president Uddhav Thackeray — who had issued separate whips for the Speaker’s election, went on to accuse each other of not obeying their respective whips on Sunday.
While Shiv Sena MLAs’ (Thackeray faction) group leader Ajay Choudhari had issued a whip on Saturday to all MLAs asking them to vote for their Assembly Speaker candidate Rajan Salvi, the Shinde faction’s chief whip, Bharat Gogawale, had issued a whip to the MLAs to vote in favour of BJP’s Rahul Narvekar.
Late Sunday, Narvekar went on to reject the appointment of Choudhari as the Shiv Sena MLA group leader in the House. He also removed MLA Sunil Prabhu of the Thackeray camp as the chief whip of Sena. Read more here
Even as the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray has taken the battle to the Supreme Court and the state Assembly seeking the disqualification and the suspension of 16 rebels MLAs, the key to finding a solution to the vexed problem rests with Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who was elected to the post on Sunday.
The Thackeray faction has moved the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the 16 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification proceedings have been initiated by the deputy speaker in the state Assembly. Sena whip Sunil Prabhu had filed moved SC seeking that the rebel MLAs be suspended from the membership of the Assembly as an interim measure till the disqualification petitions are decided. The SC will her the matter next on on July 11.
Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar, while maintaining that the Speaker is supreme when it comes to deciding legislative matters, said, “If the 39 of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs have joined the Shinde faction, the picture is clear. Why have any ambiguity about who has the majority?” Read more
Both the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs, Abu Asim Azmi (Mankhurd) and Rais Shaikh (Bhiwandi), and one of the two AIMIM MLAs, Shah Faruque Anwar (Dhule), in Maharashtra abstained from voting in the Assembly Speaker’s election Sunday in protest against the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts as Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively.
The BJP’s candidate Rahul Narwekar, backed by the new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena breakaway group, won the Speaker’s election comfortably, garnering 164 votes as against the MVA’s nominee and Sena MLA Rajan Salvi’s 107 in the 287-member House.
The SP was earlier part of the MVA whose government’s bid to rename the two districts on June 29 marked its last significant decision before it fell. The move made by the SP and the AIMIM not to vote in favour of the MVA’s nominee shocked many MVA leaders. Read the full report here
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, plans to introduce a mandatory course on caste awareness. It is one of the initiatives taken by the SC/ST Cell of the institute, which believes that sensitisation is a way toward inclusivity.
According to information provided by the institute, the cell has recently conducted a few surveys to understand the difficulties faced by students on the lines of caste division.
Some of the observations made in the surveys were on holding more sensitisation events and having a mandatory academic course on caste and racial discrimination on the lines of the mandatory gender sensitisation course, launched last year. Read the full report here
Even as they were humbled during the Speaker’s election on Sunday, Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress took potshots at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, newly-appointed Speaker Rahul Narwekar and other BJP and rebel Shiv Sena MLAs at the Vidhan Bhavan on Sunday.
While congratulating Narwekar on his election as the Speaker, NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, “Narwekar was in Shiv Sena and close to his leader Aaditya Thackeray. In the NCP, he was close to me. Now, he is close to Devendra.”
Addressing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Pawar said he must develop good relations with Narwekar, “else one cannot say what will happen to you”. The NCP leader added that what Narwekar has achieved in three years, many BJP leaders could not achieve the same for years. Read the full report here
Amid the ongoing battle between two Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, both the sides issued separate whips to the party legislators to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the state Assembly Speaker's election on Sunday.
The group led by Shinde voted in favour of BJP's Rahul Narvekar as the Speaker, while 16 MLAs from the Thackeray-led camp voted against him.
The group led by Thackeray later gave a letter to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, claiming some MLAs violated the party's directive.
After the two-day special session of the Maharashtra Assembly commenced at 11 am, Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was elected its Speaker.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes.
The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs in the House. --PTI
Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu said that some defied Shiv Sena whip while voting in Speaker election. "A complaint has been filed with the presiding officer. They could possibly be disqualified as a result. The matter of suspension of twelve members is still pending in SC," he said.
"The rebel MLAs (Eknath Shinde faction), who came today, were unable to look us in the eye. How long are you going to move from one hotel to the other? These MLAs will have to go to their Assembly constituencies one day. How will they face the people then?" Aaditya Thackeray asked.
Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat targeted Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari after the Assembly Speaker's election, saying they had been demanding the same since some time, but it seems "the governor was sleeping for one-and-a-half years".
The Speaker's post was lying vacant since February last year after Nana Patole of the Congress resigned.
Thorat, in a statement made on the floor of the House while congratulating Narvekar, said, "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.” Thorat said when the MVA was in power in Maharashtra, they wanted to make the Speaker's appointment procedure on the lines of the Lok Sabha.
"We wanted to make the whole procedure transparent as against the earlier procedure of secret voting. We even tried to knock the doors of court, but the Supreme Court did not take a decision quickly,” the Congress legislator said. (PTI)
Within hours of assuming power on Thursday (June 30), Maharashtra’s new government decided in its first Cabinet meeting to reverse the decision of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray to move the Metro-3 car shed from Aarey to the 102-acre salt pan land in Kanjurmarg.
The dispute over the construction of a Metro car shed at Aarey has been ongoing since 2014. The move to shift the car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg was a major bone of contention between the Shiv Sena and its former ally, the BJP. Read more
Amit Thackeray opposed the metro car shed at Aarey colony saying the decision of the government to have Mumbai Metro 3 carshed has come as a shocker for him. Earlier, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya had also opposed carshed at Aarey.
"The government's decision to build a carshed in Aarey has come as a shock to many environment lovers like me. Hundreds of youths had struggled to not have the car shed in Aarey and some even were jailed. We want development but should not sacrifice the environment. If the environment is destroyed, then there will be no existence of people to do politics . All leaders must understand this. I request the New CM and DCM to rethink on their decision," Amit Thackeray said in a social media post.
Meanwhile, several green activists have called for a protest at Aarey forest on Sunday morning. As hundreds of activists are likely to gather in Aarey the Mumbai police have deployed policement at Aarey forest.
In a series of tweets, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray said the new BJP-Eknath Shinde faction government should not cast their anger for the Opposition on Mumbai.
His comments come as the new government announced that a Metro carshed will be built in Aarey Colony, considered Mumbai's green lung. "Aarey isn’t only about 2700+ trees, it is about it’s biodiversity that we are seeking to protect in our Mumbai," he said.
Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis said Speaker Rahul Narwekar will make Maharashtra proud.
"As a legislator, he had earned applause from both the poor and rich. Colaba is a constituency which houses poor kolis (fisherman colonies) on one hand and rich living in high rises. Striking a balance and serving both was a challenge which he managed. He brought several welfare schemes for fisherfolks," Fadnavis said.
Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray targeted the Eknath Shinde-led government on the stringent security arrangements in place for rebel Shiv Sena MLAs as they entered the Vidhan Bhavan premises from a nearby luxury hotel.
“We have not seen such security before in Mumbai. Why are you scared? Is someone going to run away? Why so much fear,” Thackeray said as the Shinde group MLAs reached Vidhan Bhavan in special buses. (PTI)
Rahul Narwekar has become the youngest Speaker of not only Maharashtra but entire country. The 45-year-old is an advocate by profession.
Narwekar hails from Sawantwadi and their family was from Goa. His father Suresh Narwekar was a BMC corporator. He is the son-in-law of senior NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, the former chairman of the Legislative Council.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde addressed Assembly after BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Speaker, saying the post is sacrosanct. "This is a coveted post which was held by several veterans who earned national recognition," he said.
With a majority of 164 votes, BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker.
MVA constituents SShiv Sena, NCP and Congress polled 107 votes for their pick for the Speaker's post Rajan Salvi.
Meanwhile, AIMIM abstained from voting.
During the head count to elect the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, Opposition benches chanted "ED,ED" when Shiv Sena's Yamini Yashwant Jadhav registered her head count.
A prominent Sena MLA, who joined the Shinde-led rebel group, Jadhav is wife of former chairman of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s Standing Committee Yashwant Jadhav who is being probed by the ED in a case of alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations. Prior to the ED action, the Income Tax officials too had attached a flat belonging to the Jadhavs in Bandra and nearly 40 properties linked to Yashwant over the charges of tax evasion earlier this year.
The BJP, Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and smaller parties came together to give 164 votes for Colaba MLA Rahul Narwekar for the Assembly Speaker's post.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) abstained from voting against BJP candidate Rahul Narwekar. Both its MLAs Abu Azmi and Raees Shaikh kept sitting during the head count.
On the first day of the Maharashtra Assembly session, voting to elect the Speaker began. After the voice vote is completed, division of votes will begin.
BJP's pick Rahul Narwekar is pitted against Shiv Sena's Rajan Salvi in the Assembly Speaker election.
CM Eknath Shinde and loyalist MLAs paid tributes at the statue of Balasaheb Thackeray near Colaba's Regal cinema.
Newly-appointed Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde arrived at the Vidhan Bhavan, where a two day Assembly session will be held to choose the Speaker. A floor test will also be held to test the waters for the Sena-BJP government.
The first-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, Rahul Narwekar, 45, filed his nomination as the party’s candidate for the election to the Speaker’s post in the Maharashtra Assembly on Friday.
An advocate by profession, Narwekar, who had been associated with the Sena as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the past, joined the BJP in the run-up to the October 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The saffron party fielded him from the upmarket Colaba constituency in South Mumbai, which he won. Read more
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction sealed the legislative party office in Vidhan Bhavan ahead of the two-day Assembly session, in which the Speaker will be elected and a floor test will be held.
Following is the party position in the Assembly:
Shiv Sena 55
NCP 53
Congress 44
BJP 106
Bahujan Vikas Aghadi 3
Samajwadi Party 2
AIMIM 2
Prahar Janshakti Party 2
MNS 1
CPI (M) 1
PWP 1
Swambhimani Paksha 1
Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1
Jansurajya Shakti Party 1
Krantikari Shetkari Party 1
Independents 13.
There is a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke last month. Two NCP members – Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal – have tested COVID-19 positive, while two other party legislators – Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik – are currently in jail.
As the floor test is also scheduled on Monday, Shiv Sena president and former CM Uddhav Thackeray held meetings with party leaders to carve out a strategy. Congress MLC Bhai Jagtap and Congress working president Charan Singh Sapra also met Thackeray at Matorshree Saturday afternoon and all MVA leaders held a meeting in the evening.
The NCP legislature party will hold a meeting on Sunday morning to decide their strategy. State NCP president Jayant Patil said, “I feel elections should not be held. All three parties gave a letter… We have a deputy Speaker, Narhari Zirwal, and he has the right to run the House… When the government has changed, Koshyari has allowed elections for a Speaker and people are watching these developments.”
Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “Earlier, MVA demanded election of Speaker and it was denied by the Governor quoting law related to elections. Now, we can’t understand the reason to have elections. The Governor should not forget that he is a constitutional authority, and not a BJP worker.”
Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Thursday and the Governor has called for a special session of the assembly on Sunday and Monday for the Speaker’s election followed by a floor test.
The election will mark the first battle in the House between Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena which has 16 MLAs, and Shinde-led rebel group with 39 MLAs.
With the Speaker’s election slated for Sunday after Shiv Sena announced the candidature of its MLA Rajan Salvi for the post against BJP’s Rahul Narwekar, the stage is set for the first test for the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his group of Sena rebels, and for BJP and the Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
On Saturday, Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu issued a whip, asking all the MLAs to be present in the assembly and cast their votes in favour of Salvi.
Amid the political turmoil in the state arising out of a revolt by 39 Shiv Sena MLAs and eventually resulting in the collapse of the MVA government and the emergence of a new BJP-Shinde combine at the hustings, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is trying to rebuild the party.
To benefit from the rebellion in the Shiv Sena, the MNS has launched the ‘Mahasampark Abhiyan’, to be championed by Amit Thackeray, the 29-year-old son of party chief Raj Thackeray. The president of Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena will be going on a Konkan tour from July 5 to 11 as part of the party’s outreach programme. Read more
The last-minute twist in the Maharashtra political drama Thursday that saw the BJP high command forcing Devendra Fadnavis to join the rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde-led government as Deputy Chief Minister might have shocked Fadnavis and his legion of supporters in the state BJP, but he seems to have already left it behind to move to setting new goals for himself and the state BJP.
This was evidenced Friday night, when during a closed-door meeting of the BJP MLAs, Fadnavis, while accepting their congratulatory greetings and bouquets, exhorted them to start gearing up for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls due in 2024. Read more
Stung by the revolt of Chhagan Bhujbal with 17 other MLAs, and jibes from within over turning his party into his fief, Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray on July 18, 1992, wrote a signed article in Saamana, and announced that he was quitting the party.
Two days later, on June 20, a sea of Shiv Sainiks landed up outside the Sena office, pleading with Thackeray to reconsider. Senior Shiv Sena leaders were heckled and manhandled for not being loyal enough and many of Thackeray’s potential detractors were cut to size. Thackeray then “magnanimously” acceded to the Sainiks’ requests to reconsider his decision, with the episode stamping his authority on the party forever.
Almost exactly 30 years later, the above is the best-case scenario for son Uddhav Thackeray. However, on June 29, as he resigned as the Chief Minister and MLC after a 15-minute-long staid speech, it was with an appeal for peace, which seemed unnecessary. Read more
Rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who have extended support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday returned to Mumbai from Goa on the eve of a special two-day session of the state legislature which will see election for the Assembly Speaker speaker’s as well as a floor test of the new government.
If Uddhav Thackeray does not withdraw his decision of removing Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde from the position of 'Shiv Sena leader', then the latter would challenge the move legally, a rebel Sena MLA said on Saturday.
Shiv Sena president and former chief minister Thackeray on Friday removed Shinde from the post of 'Shiv Sena leader', accusing him of indulging in "anti-party activities". --PTI
Speaking about the recent expulsion of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde from the Shiv Sena, party leader Deepak Kesarkar said: "Workers are signing a Rs 100 affidavit that they won't leave Shiv Sena. Shiv Bandhan (tied when a person joins Shiv Sena) is the 'bandhan' of love and it’s still with us. This is just to misguide the workers."
Balasaheb Thorat, Congress leader on Maharashtra Speaker's election: "We have filed the nomination of Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi. Congress had the first claim but we sat down with Shiv Sena and NCP and this decision was taken together."
The Maha Vikas Aghadi has fielded Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi against BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar for the Maharashtra Assembly's Speaker post, ANI reported.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who returned to Goa at about 3.30 am on Saturday, will hold a meeting with his faction of Shiv Sena MLAs at about 11 am. The MLAs and Shinde’s supporters, who have been lodged at the Taj Resort and Convention Centre in Panaji’s Dona Paula since Wednesday, are set to return to Mumbai on Saturday afternoon along with Shinde.
Shinde had said that since a session of the Assembly had been convened by the Governor of Maharashtra on July 3 and 4, his comrades would be leaving for Mumbai on Saturday. After swearing in as Chief Minister on Thursday, he returned to Goa in the early hours of the day on Friday as well as Saturday. Read more.
The BJP is preparing to ensure that its Colaba MLA Rahul Narvekar is chosen as Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly in the election to be held on Sunday — and official recognition is granted to the rebel Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde ahead of the trust vote to be held a day later.
Officials confirmed that Narvekar filed nomination papers for the Speaker’s post on Friday even as the special two-day session of the Assembly was convened from July 3 instead of July 2 as slotted earlier. The dates were changed to provide time for members to reach Mumbai, sources said, adding that the rebel Sena MLAs are set to reach the city by Saturday. The Shiv Sena is likely to file its candidate’s nomination on Saturday. Read more.
Extending his best wishes to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for being sworn in as deputy chief minister of the state, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray praised him for accepting the junior role in the government despite being a two-time CM.??
After the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, there is now uncertainty over the future of the MVA – a coalition of three parties, the Uddhav-led Sena, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Congress. The key question that hangs over the MVA’s fate is, whether the triad coalition could work in electoral politics if it had only limited success in government that fell after completing barely 31 months.
In a government setting with defined power structures, it is easier to engage with allies while sharing power. But when the same model is extended to electoral politics with its pulls and pressures, it is difficult to succeed, with the allies vying with each other to protect their turfs and expand their footprints, which is reflected in their respective bids to stake claims over higher share of seats in various elections including civic polls or Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Read more.
Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday expelled Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde from the party for indulging in “anti-party activities”. “In exercise of powers vested in me as Shiv Sena party president, I remove you from the post of Shiv Sena leader in the party organisation,” Thackeray wrote in a letter addressed to the Maharashtra CM, who had led a faction of rebel Sena MLAs.
