Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis with newly elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar.Maharashtra News Highlights: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, plans to introduce a mandatory course on caste awareness. It is one of the initiatives taken by the SC/ST Cell of the institute, which believes that sensitisation is a way toward inclusivity.
The four-day old Shiv Sena-BJP government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning Sunday. The election to the post of the Speaker of the House was held Sunday, in which BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected. Ahead the session, the Eknath Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena sealed the legislative party office in the Vidhan Bhavan. The Maha Vikas Aghadi had fielded Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi.
Rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who have extended support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday returned to Mumbai from Goa on the eve of a special two-day session of the state legislature which will see election for the Assembly Speaker speaker’s as well as a floor test of the new government.
New Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs at the Mumbai airport, Saturday. They returned from Goa on the eve of an Assembly session. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
The BJP will conduct a Shok Sabha — a condolence meeting — in Amravati on Monday morning for Umesh Kolhe, 54, who was murdered by seven men allegedly for his posts supporting Nupur Sharma.
BJP leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Anil Bonde had approached the Amravati Police Sunday seeking permission to conduct the Shok Sabha, but the police had denied them the same. The party had told police that at least 2,500 people, including VHP members, were likely to attend the meet.
Kolhe’s younger brother Mahesh told The Indian Express on Sunday, “They never asked for our permission but we do not have any objections. We will be present at the meet and express our thoughts. But I earnestly requested them (BJP and VHP) to keep the Sabha completely peaceful and that there should be no speeches as I want my brother’s soul to rest in peace and do not want a bad name for my family.”
Amid protests over the Eknath Shinde-led government’s plan to move back the proposed Metro 3 car shed to Mumbai’s Aarey forest from Kanjurmarg, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the opposition to the move by some “pseudo-environmentalists” could be “sponsored”.
“There are some genuine environmental activists, while some are pseudo ones. Their opposition to the car shed is likely to be sponsored. Hence, they continue to oppose the construction of the car shed for Metro 3 line,” he told mediapersons on the premises of the Vidhan Bhavan.
“The trees that the state wanted to chop down, have already been felled,” he said, adding that there is no need to fell any more trees. Maintaining that nearly 25 per cent of the work is done, Fadnavis said the car shed can be ready in the next one year. Read more here
Days after taking over the Maharashtra government, the BJP-Shinde group alliance on Sunday passed its first test in the State Assembly with BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar winning the Speaker’s election. While Narwekar polled 164 votes, the rival candidate Rajan Salvi of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena got 107.
Later, with the confidence motion scheduled on Monday, the newly elected Speaker granted relief to the Shinde camp by rejecting the appointment of MLA Ajay Choudhary as the Shiv Sena legislature group leader. He also revoked the appointment of MLA Sunil Prabhu as the Shiv Sena Chief Whip. Choudhary and Prabhu are from the Thackeray camp.
Besides, the Speaker upheld the appointment in 2019 of Eknath Shinde as the Sena legislature group leader. Read more here
To stake claim on the Shiv Sena, two factions of the party — one led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the other by party president Uddhav Thackeray — who had issued separate whips for the Speaker’s election, went on to accuse each other of not obeying their respective whips on Sunday.
While Shiv Sena MLAs’ (Thackeray faction) group leader Ajay Choudhari had issued a whip on Saturday to all MLAs asking them to vote for their Assembly Speaker candidate Rajan Salvi, the Shinde faction’s chief whip, Bharat Gogawale, had issued a whip to the MLAs to vote in favour of BJP’s Rahul Narvekar.
Late Sunday, Narvekar went on to reject the appointment of Choudhari as the Shiv Sena MLA group leader in the House. He also removed MLA Sunil Prabhu of the Thackeray camp as the chief whip of Sena. Read more here
Even as the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray has taken the battle to the Supreme Court and the state Assembly seeking the disqualification and the suspension of 16 rebels MLAs, the key to finding a solution to the vexed problem rests with Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who was elected to the post on Sunday.
The Thackeray faction has moved the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the 16 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification proceedings have been initiated by the deputy speaker in the state Assembly. Sena whip Sunil Prabhu had filed moved SC seeking that the rebel MLAs be suspended from the membership of the Assembly as an interim measure till the disqualification petitions are decided. The SC will her the matter next on on July 11.
Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar, while maintaining that the Speaker is supreme when it comes to deciding legislative matters, said, “If the 39 of the 55 Shiv Sena MLAs have joined the Shinde faction, the picture is clear. Why have any ambiguity about who has the majority?” Read more
Both the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs, Abu Asim Azmi (Mankhurd) and Rais Shaikh (Bhiwandi), and one of the two AIMIM MLAs, Shah Faruque Anwar (Dhule), in Maharashtra abstained from voting in the Assembly Speaker’s election Sunday in protest against the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts as Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively.
The BJP’s candidate Rahul Narwekar, backed by the new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena breakaway group, won the Speaker’s election comfortably, garnering 164 votes as against the MVA’s nominee and Sena MLA Rajan Salvi’s 107 in the 287-member House.
The SP was earlier part of the MVA whose government’s bid to rename the two districts on June 29 marked its last significant decision before it fell. The move made by the SP and the AIMIM not to vote in favour of the MVA’s nominee shocked many MVA leaders. Read the full report here
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, plans to introduce a mandatory course on caste awareness. It is one of the initiatives taken by the SC/ST Cell of the institute, which believes that sensitisation is a way toward inclusivity.
According to information provided by the institute, the cell has recently conducted a few surveys to understand the difficulties faced by students on the lines of caste division.
Some of the observations made in the surveys were on holding more sensitisation events and having a mandatory academic course on caste and racial discrimination on the lines of the mandatory gender sensitisation course, launched last year. Read the full report here
Even as they were humbled during the Speaker’s election on Sunday, Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress took potshots at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, newly-appointed Speaker Rahul Narwekar and other BJP and rebel Shiv Sena MLAs at the Vidhan Bhavan on Sunday.
While congratulating Narwekar on his election as the Speaker, NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, “Narwekar was in Shiv Sena and close to his leader Aaditya Thackeray. In the NCP, he was close to me. Now, he is close to Devendra.”
Addressing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Pawar said he must develop good relations with Narwekar, “else one cannot say what will happen to you”. The NCP leader added that what Narwekar has achieved in three years, many BJP leaders could not achieve the same for years. Read the full report here
Amid the ongoing battle between two Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, both the sides issued separate whips to the party legislators to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the state Assembly Speaker's election on Sunday.
The group led by Shinde voted in favour of BJP's Rahul Narvekar as the Speaker, while 16 MLAs from the Thackeray-led camp voted against him.
The group led by Thackeray later gave a letter to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, claiming some MLAs violated the party's directive.
After the two-day special session of the Maharashtra Assembly commenced at 11 am, Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was elected its Speaker.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes.
The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs in the House. --PTI
Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu said that some defied Shiv Sena whip while voting in Speaker election. "A complaint has been filed with the presiding officer. They could possibly be disqualified as a result. The matter of suspension of twelve members is still pending in SC," he said.
"The rebel MLAs (Eknath Shinde faction), who came today, were unable to look us in the eye. How long are you going to move from one hotel to the other? These MLAs will have to go to their Assembly constituencies one day. How will they face the people then?" Aaditya Thackeray asked.
Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat targeted Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari after the Assembly Speaker's election, saying they had been demanding the same since some time, but it seems "the governor was sleeping for one-and-a-half years".
The Speaker's post was lying vacant since February last year after Nana Patole of the Congress resigned.
Thorat, in a statement made on the floor of the House while congratulating Narvekar, said, "The Speaker's election took place in a transparent way. This is what we had been demanding with the governor for quite some time. It seems the governor was sleeping for one-and-a-half years.” Thorat said when the MVA was in power in Maharashtra, they wanted to make the Speaker's appointment procedure on the lines of the Lok Sabha.
"We wanted to make the whole procedure transparent as against the earlier procedure of secret voting. We even tried to knock the doors of court, but the Supreme Court did not take a decision quickly,” the Congress legislator said. (PTI)
Within hours of assuming power on Thursday (June 30), Maharashtra’s new government decided in its first Cabinet meeting to reverse the decision of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray to move the Metro-3 car shed from Aarey to the 102-acre salt pan land in Kanjurmarg.
The dispute over the construction of a Metro car shed at Aarey has been ongoing since 2014. The move to shift the car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg was a major bone of contention between the Shiv Sena and its former ally, the BJP. Read more
Amit Thackeray opposed the metro car shed at Aarey colony saying the decision of the government to have Mumbai Metro 3 carshed has come as a shocker for him. Earlier, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya had also opposed carshed at Aarey.
"The government's decision to build a carshed in Aarey has come as a shock to many environment lovers like me. Hundreds of youths had struggled to not have the car shed in Aarey and some even were jailed. We want development but should not sacrifice the environment. If the environment is destroyed, then there will be no existence of people to do politics . All leaders must understand this. I request the New CM and DCM to rethink on their decision," Amit Thackeray said in a social media post.
Meanwhile, several green activists have called for a protest at Aarey forest on Sunday morning. As hundreds of activists are likely to gather in Aarey the Mumbai police have deployed policement at Aarey forest.
In a series of tweets, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray said the new BJP-Eknath Shinde faction government should not cast their anger for the Opposition on Mumbai.
His comments come as the new government announced that a Metro carshed will be built in Aarey Colony, considered Mumbai's green lung. "Aarey isn’t only about 2700+ trees, it is about it’s biodiversity that we are seeking to protect in our Mumbai," he said.
Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis said Speaker Rahul Narwekar will make Maharashtra proud.
"As a legislator, he had earned applause from both the poor and rich. Colaba is a constituency which houses poor kolis (fisherman colonies) on one hand and rich living in high rises. Striking a balance and serving both was a challenge which he managed. He brought several welfare schemes for fisherfolks," Fadnavis said.
Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray targeted the Eknath Shinde-led government on the stringent security arrangements in place for rebel Shiv Sena MLAs as they entered the Vidhan Bhavan premises from a nearby luxury hotel.
“We have not seen such security before in Mumbai. Why are you scared? Is someone going to run away? Why so much fear,” Thackeray said as the Shinde group MLAs reached Vidhan Bhavan in special buses. (PTI)
Rahul Narwekar has become the youngest Speaker of not only Maharashtra but entire country. The 45-year-old is an advocate by profession.
Narwekar hails from Sawantwadi and their family was from Goa. His father Suresh Narwekar was a BMC corporator. He is the son-in-law of senior NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, the former chairman of the Legislative Council.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde addressed Assembly after BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Speaker, saying the post is sacrosanct. "This is a coveted post which was held by several veterans who earned national recognition," he said.
With a majority of 164 votes, BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker.