NEW DELHI: The three-day special session of the Maharashtra Assembly began on Saturday with the swearing-in of newly elected MLAs, and the election of a new Speaker is set to take place during the session.
This session, which sets the stage for the upcoming winter session in Nagpur from December 16 to 21, aims to serve as a platform to set the tone for legislative agenda for the newly formed assembly in Maharashtra.
Senior BJP MLA Kalidas Sulochana Kolambkar was sworn in as the pro-tem Speaker of the assembly by Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan on Friday, a day ahead of the special session.
Ahead of the state assembly’s special session, newly elected MLAs spoke to the media, focusing on their commitment to the development of their constituencies and advancing key initiatives.
Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant commented on the ongoing process, saying, “15 days ago, the 288 MLAs who were elected in the assembly elections took their oath, and today we are holding the oath-taking ceremony here. The election of the Speaker will take place soon. All three leaders will sit and decide when the cabinet will be expanded.”
Samant also addressed portfolio allocations, adding, “Who is to be made a minister or not is actually the call of the chief minister. CM will sit with both DCMs and make a decision on that. Who has said that we want the home ministry? CM and DCMs will decide on the portfolios.”
The Maharashtra legislative assembly is the lower house of the state’s bicameral legislature, with 288 members directly elected from single-seat constituencies.
Earlier this week, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Maharashtra’s chief minister at a grand ceremony in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, joined by Ajit Pawar of NCP and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde as deputy chief ministers, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a decisive victory, winning 235 seats. The BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats, while Shiv Sena won 57 and NCP secured 41 seats. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance faced a major setback, with Congress winning just 16 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) securing 20, and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) claiming only 10 seats.