Congress leader Nana Patole is 56 years old and represents Sakoli Assembly in Vidarbha. He had quit Congress and joined BJP in 2014. He resigned from BJP and came back to join Congress in 2017.
Mumbai: Congress candidate Nana Patole was elected unopposed as the Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly.
Earlier, BJP candidate withdrew from the race of Speaker post, resulting in unanimous election of Patole as the Speaker.
BJP had nominated Kisan Kathore to the post of Speaker.
"Nana Patole has also come from a farmer family and I am very confident that he will give justice to everyone," said CM Uddhav Thackeray.
56-year-old Patole represents Sakoli Assembly in Vidarbha. The Congress leader had quit party in 2014 and had joined BJP. He even won the Assembly elections in 2014 from Sakoli in 2014. But due to alleged differences with party leaders including former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Patole resigned from BJP in 2017.
He was re-inducted into Congress the same year.
BJP's Kisan Kathore was elected as MLA in 2004 from NCP ticket. He represents Ambernath in Thane.
"BJP had nominated Kisan Kathore for the post of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, yesterday. But, after incumbents' request, we have decided to withdraw Kathore's candidature," said Chandrakant Patil, Maharashtra BJP President.
Earlier, NCP's Dilip Walse Patil was elected as the pro-tem Speaker of the house to conduct floor test. The floor test was held on Saturday (November30) where the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance won with 169 votes in the 288-member Assembly.
BJP with 105 MLAs had staged a walkout.
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