Maharashtra assembly deputy speaker election on Mar 26 NCP's Bansode likely to get post

Mumbai, Mar 24 (PTI) Election for the post of Maharashtra assembly deputy speaker will be held on March 26 and ruling Mahayuti's candidate Anna Bansode is likely to get the position unopposed.
Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar told the house on Monday that the election for the post of his deputy will be held on March 26, the last day of the ongoing budget session of the state legislature.
He said nomination filing will take place on March 25.
Bansode, an MLA of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by deputy CM Ajit Pawar, is the Mahayuti candidate for the post.
His name was finalised last week at a meeting attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) and his deputies Ajit Pawar (NCP) and Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena).
A close aide of Pawar, the three-time legislator from Pimpri in Pune district, a member of the Scheduled Castes, is likely to be elected unopposed given the ruling bloc's overwhelming majority in the assembly and with no indication from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to field its nominee.
In 2019, the undivided NCP's tribal MLA Narhari Zirwal was elected as the deputy speaker. He is currently a minister in the BJP-led Mahayuti government.
In the 288-member assembly, the BJP has 132 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena (57) and the NCP (41).
Meanwhile, Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar demanded that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the assembly be named in the current legislature session itself.
The MVA has already given a letter urging the Speaker to name Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav as the Leader of Opposition, a cabinet-level post.
Narwekar said he would take a decision on the LoP issue as per legislative rules.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)