Eknath Shinde faction passes first test, Rahul Narvekar elected as Maharashtra state assembly Speaker

Mumbai: BJP and Eknath Shinde group candidate Rahul Narvekar (BJP) was declared elected as Maharashtra State Assembly Speaker on Sunday.

Assembly deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal declared that Advocate Narvekar has been elected as the state assembly speaker.

Narvekar defeated MVA backed candidate Rajan Salvi of the Shiv Sena.

After counting of votes Narvekar got 164 votes while Salvi got 107 votes.

While two Samajwadi Party MLAs including Abu Azmi and the lone AIMIM MLA abstained.

BJP's Chandrakant Patil put up motion to elect Narvekar as assembly Speaker while Tupe put the motion on behalf of Salvi in the house.

A special two-day assembly session was called to elect the new assembly speaker and to carry out the floor test by state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari after the new government was formed led by Eknath Shinde which was sworn on July 1 after the collapse of the MVA government led Uddhav Thackeray following the rebellion by Shinde in the Shiv Sena.

Floor of test motion will come up on Monday in house. (UNI)