'Even Viswanathan Anand would avoid chess game with Amit Shah given his acumen,' says NCP

Wary of the deftness of Amit Shah, even Vishy Anand would avoid a chess game with him, said Chhagan Bhujbal at the two-day special session of the Maharashtra Assembly. Significantly, in an unexpected decision, the BJP appointed Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who took the oath of office on June 30. This is in spite of the BJP being the single largest party in the Maharashtra assembly. 

NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Bhujbal during the special session of the Maharashtra Assembly, immediately before Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, stood up to deliver the congratulatory message to newly appointed speaker BJP's Rahul Narwekar said, "Vishwanathan Anand has defeated some of the world's best chess players and thus is a world-renowned chess player. When he was asked will he continue playing chess? He said he would no longer be able to continue to play the game because Home Minister Amit Shah's single move leaves me clueless, as to which piece on the chess board was where."

BJP's Speaker nominee Rahul Narwekar outnumbers Sena's Rajan Salvi

The BJP candidate for the post of assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar (164 votes) defeated Sena's nominee MLA Rajan Salvi (107 votes). Significantly, the position of the speaker was vacant since February 4, 2021, when Congress leader Nana Patole resigned from the post to become the Maharashtra Congress president. What ensued was a long battle between former CM Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. 

MVA's differences with Governor over speaker elections

On December 27, Uddhav Thackeray wrote to the Governor for conducting the election for the position of speaker, however, the latter cited its 'Unconstitunality' and denied the request, as the rules had been changed to hold the speaker election. It can only be conducted with an open vote system rather than a secret ballot.

The Governor through his secretary again disapproved MVA alliance's request for the speaker's election to be held on March 16 this year, citing the matter was subjudice as BJP MLA Girish Mahajan had filed a case in the Supreme Court against an amendment enabling the election of the Speaker to be conducted via an open vote system through a voice vote and show of hands instead of a secret ballot. However, the Governor allowed this poll to go ahead on July 3 after the Eknath Shinde-led government was sworn in.  

Image: PTI