Maharashtra Assembly Speaker election today; Congress' Nana Patole to contest against BJP's Kisan Kathore

New Delhi: The crucial election for the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker will be held on Sunday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielding Kisan Kathore for the post against Congress’s Nana Patole. The election for the post of Speaker comes a day after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray cleared the floor test with 169 votes.

Patole is a BJP rebel who left the party and joined the Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections this year. He contested against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur but lost.

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 NCP ticket in 2004. He won in 2009, 2014 and 2019 assembly elections. He contested the last two elections on BJP ticket.

On Saturday, the Assembly witnessed much drama as BJP MLAs staged a walkout with former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis claiming that never in the history of the state Assembly, a trust vote was conducted without electing a Speaker. "What was the fear this time?" Fadnavis said, moments before the BJP staged a walkout.

Fadnavis said that the oath-taking ceremony of Thackeray and other six ministers in Shivaji park was not in line with the rules. "Someone took Babasaheb Thackeray's name, someone took names of Sonia ji and Pawar Saheb. The oath was not taken as per the given format," Fadnavis said.

"You feel stung when we took names of Chhatrapati Shivaji. I will take the name again and again. Those who don't take the names of their parents have no right to live," Uddhav said, in response to Fadnavis's allegations.