Maharashtra’s new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will seek a confidence vote on the floor of the State Assembly on July 4.

 A day after Sena’s breakaway rebel faction leader Shinde and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, the new Government convened a special session of the State Legislature on July 3 and 4.

 On the first day of the special session,  i.e. on July 3, a new Speaker will be elected in place of Nana Patole who had resigned from the post in February last year.

The Speaker’s post has remained vacant for the past 16 months. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zhirwal has functioned as the Acting Speaker since then.

 Shinde will seek a confidence vote on the floor of the State Assembly on July 4.   

 On his part, Shinde has claimed that he enjoys the support of 50 MLAs, while the BJP that is supporting him in the formation of the Government has a strength of 106 MLAs and claims to have the support of another 14 MLAs, mostly independents.

 Meanwhile, BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar filed his nomination for the Speaker’s post, while the Shiv Sena-led Opposition has yet to finalise its candidate for the Speaker’s post. In all likelihood, the Congress will field a candidate on behalf of the MVA.

 Narvekar, the BJP’s candidate for the Speaker’s polls, is a sitting BJP MLA from Mumbai’s Colaba constituency. He was associated with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party in the past.

 Narvekar is the son-in-law of senior NCP leader Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, a legislator from NCP and chairman and speaker of the Maharashtra legislative council.

 A spokesperson of the Youth Wing of Shiv Sena in his early years of politics, Narvekar had quit the Sena and joined NCP early in 2014. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on an NCP ticket.