Mumbai, Dec 8 (IANS): BJP legislator Rahul Narwekar on behalf of MahaYuti filed his nomination for the post of Speaker of the 15th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Sunday. The filing of nomination was up to 12 p.m. as the election is slated for Monday.

The Assembly Secretariat has received Narwekar’s sole nomination as the Maha Vikas Aghadi has not fielded its candidate for want of numbers. Narwekar is expected to be elected unopposed. He will take the charge on Monday.

Narwekar was elected as the Speaker of the 14th State Assembly in July 2022 after the change in the government following a rebellion staged by Eknath Shinde against Uddhav Thackeray. Narwekar polled 164 votes defeating the Shiv Sena-UBT legislator Rajan Salvi who got 107 votes during the Speaker’s election that took place on July 3, 2022.

BJP has done a repeat of the Lok Sabha experiment where the party had fielded Om Birla for a second consecutive term for the Speaker’s post. Birla was elected defeating the Congress nominee K Suresh.

Narwekar was elected from the Colaba constituency for the second time after the 2019 elections. He was earlier associated with Shiv Sena and NCP (united).

During the 14th state Assembly, Narwekar as a Speaker had delivered two key judgments after the split in the Shiv Sena and NCP.

Narwekar on January 10 this year ruled that the Eknath Shinde faction was the legitimate and “real Shiv Sena”, having the support of the majority of the party’s MLAs. Further, in February this year, he had declared that Ajit Pawar-led NCP as the real NCP when the two factions emerged in 2023.

As the three-day special session of the 15th Maharashtra Assembly started on Saturday, the proceedings were presided over by pro-tem Speaker Kalidas Kolambkar, the 9-term BJP legislator.