Mumbai: Reluctant to conduct a secret ballot in a three-party coalition, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra wants the assembly Speaker elections to be held with an open vote, ThePrint has learnt.
To this end, the rules committee of the state legislative assembly met on 6 July, the second day of the two-day Monsoon session, and decided to propose this change to the assembly in the next session. The committee will propose conducting the election through a show of hands or a voice vote.
“The chief minister is hesitant to hold an election to the Speaker’s post through a secret ballot. It would have been different if there was a one-party government with a clear majority and the possibility of a single consensus candidate. But, here, there are MLAs from ruling parties too who have certain disputes,” a senior MLA, who is part of the committee, said.
“Even if a few MLAs vote differently, it will show this government in poor light and give fodder to the opposition. With a secret ballot, it won’t even be possible to identify these MLAs,” he told ThePrint.
The state assembly has been without a Speaker since February this year, after Nana Patole resigned from the post to take charge of the Maharashtra Congress as president.
There have been two assembly sessions since then but the MVA government — which comprises the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress — has not filled the post yet.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray cited several reasons for this, which includes both assembly sessions being curtailed to two days because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the possibility of all MLAs not being present for the vote because of the RT-PCR test that is mandatory to attend sessions.
Also read: Why everyone’s upset with Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole — Sena, NCP & his own party
Procedure to change Speaker election rules
The rules committee of the state legislative assembly is headed by the assembly Speaker. However, on 5 July, which was also the first day of the Monsoon session, the legislature issued a circular giving the Deputy Speaker, Narhari Zirwal, the power to chair the committee.
Zirwal then chaired a meeting a day later, and the members decided on an open vote for the speaker election.
“The rules committee will have a couple of more meetings about this. The proposal to change rules to allow Speaker’s election by an open vote instead of a secret ballot will be tabled in the assembly in the winter session,” said a senior state government official, who did not wish to be named.
“Generally, MLAs are given 10 days to give their suggestions and objections, but this may change depending on whether the next session also needs to be cut short due to the pandemic,” he added.
The winter session is usually held in December in Nagpur.
Meanwhile, another member of the rules committee said that secret ballots were obsolete and should be changed.
“In the state legislative council, the election to the chairman is by an open vote. In the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha too there aren’t any secret ballots,” he told ThePrint.
“In an open vote with multiple candidates, the name of the first candidate will be announced and members will be able to vote through a show of hands or a voice vote. If there is no consensus, the second name will be announced, and this will follow. If there is a consensus for the first name itself, the other candidates will not be announced at all,” he added.
Politics around the Speaker’s election
According to sources in the MVA, the Congress has been insistent about conducting the election soon to fill the post with another party leader. The Shiv Sena and the NCP, however, want to wait for an opportune, stable time to hold the poll.
Multiple leaders from the ruling coalition have told ThePrint that CM Thackeray as well as NCP president Sharad Pawar were angered by Patole’s unilateral decision to resign from the post.
They felt the resignation created unnecessary problems for the shaky MVA government by necessitating a Speaker election.
The Speaker election will be the first test of the ruling coalition on the floor of the House ever since the trust vote after the government was formed in November 2019.
A senior Congress leader said, “Patole said he was instructed to resign as Speaker by the leadership in Delhi, but within the Congress no one has taken responsibility for directing him to do so.
“Internally within the MVA, no leader has directly spoken, but it is understood that the Shiv Sena and the NCP are in no hurry to fill the post,” he added.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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