Congress MLA Nana Patole was elected unopposed as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker while BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was named Leader of Opposition.
Patole was nominated by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine for Assembly Speaker's post. He was elected unopposed as the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker after his BJP challenger Kisan Kathore withdrew his nomination ahead of the voting on Sunday.
Congratulating Patole on his election, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in the assembly, "Nana Patole has also come from a farmer family and I am very confident that he will give justice to everyone."
Speaking in the assembly, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis said, "We had nominated Kisan Kathore for the post of assembly speaker, but in the all-party meeting, other parties requested us and it has been a tradition that the speaker is elected unopposed, so we accepted the request and withdrew our candidate's name."
Nana Patole has been elected to state assembly from Sakoli seat. He was earlier elected as a BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondiya constituency in 2014 but the quit the party in 2017. He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election against BJP's Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur.
Senior NCP leader and state minister Chagan Bhujbal said the Opposition withdrew the name "to keep the dignity of Assembly intact."
Later, Fadnavis was appointed as named the Leader of Opposition as the leader of the largest opposition party.
The BJP is the single-largest party with 105 MLAs. The Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress have 56, 54 and 44 members, respectively.
Speaking in the state assembly after the election of the new speaker and the Leader of Opposition, Thackeray said, "I am a lucky CM because those who opposed me are now with me and those who I was with are now on the opposite side. I am here with my luck and blessings of people. I have never told anyone that I will be coming here but I came."
Urging Fadnavis to be a 'responsible leader', the Shiv Sena chief said, "I won’t call you (Fadnavis) an 'Opposition leader', but I will call you a 'responsible leader'. If you would have been good to us then, all this (BJP-Shiv Sena split) would have not happened."
Earlier on Saturday, the Thackeray-led 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' government passed the floor test with the support of 169 MLAs.
While the Sena-NCP-Congress has 154 MLAs in total, it also has the support of smaller parties including the Samajwadi Party and some independents.
