Will have to put in extra hours to hear disqualification pleas, says Rahul Narwekar

On Thursday, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar expressed the need to dedicate additional hours to facilitate hearings on disqualification petitions, aiming to ensure the seamless operation of the House. The Winter Session of the state legislature is set to take place in Nagpur, spanning from December 7 to December 20.

Speaking to reporters here, Narwekar said, I need to ensure the smooth functioning of the legislative assembly as well as complete the disqualification hearings pending before me. It looks like I will be working from 9 am to 10 pm in this period to give justice to both responsibilities. Rahul Narwekar is hearing cross-petitions filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party last year.

Narwekar said he would hear the petitions on Thursday for two and a half hours at the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur. The speaker said it would be a challenging task for him to pay attention to both  hearings as well as smooth functioning of the House.

Shiv Sena (UBT) is pursuing the disqualification of 40 rebel MLAs led by Shinde, who staged a revolt against Thackeray. This rebellion not only resulted in the downfall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022 but also triggered a division within the 57-year-old party. In response, the Shinde camp has accused the Thackeray-led group of presenting fake documents as the basis for seeking the disqualification of their opposing MLAs.