Maharashtra Assembly to Elect Speaker at 11 AM; Dilip Walse Patil Convenes All-Party Meeting | Earth Indian

New Delhi: A day after Uddhav Thackeray-led ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ comfortably won the vote of confidence, the Maharashtra assembly will vote at 11 AM on Sunday to elect its Speaker. The Bharatiya Janata Party has pitted Kisan Kathore as its candidate for today’s election against the Congress’s Nana Patole, the nominee of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine.

“They (the BJP) have the right in democracy (to field a candidate. But it has been a tradition in Maharashtra that Speaker is elected unopposed. We hope that tradition continues,” Patole, who represents Sakoli constituency had stated yesterday.

Notably, both Patole and Kathore are in their fourth term as MLA. Kathore was elected the Thane Zilla Parishad president in 2002. He became Thane MLA on an NCP ticket in 2004. He won in 2009, 2014 and 2019 Assembly Elections. He contested the last two elections on BJP ticket.

Congress leader Patole was also associated with the BJP but he rebelled against his party to join the grand old party. He contested against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur but failed to achieve victory. He was earlier the leader of Congress’ Kisan Wing.  Reports claimed that the decision to nominate Patole for Speaker’s post has been taken in a bid to reach out to the agrarian communities.

Meanwhile, hours before the election, pro-tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil has called for a meeting of all party leaders.

By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian