Aghadi, BJP nominate their Maharashtra Assembly Speaker candidates

MLAs Nana Patole and Kisan Kathore have been nominated for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker post by the 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' and the BJP, respectively.

"Kisan Kathore will be BJP candidate for Assembly Speaker," Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil announced, alleging that Kalidas Kolambkar's removal as pro tem Speaker was illegal.

State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat announced that Nana Patole will be the Congress candidate for Speaker elections.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have come to an agreement that Congress candidate Patole will its joint candidate, NCP leader Praful Patel said. "Congress nominee will file for the Speaker's post as per an agreement between the three parties. There is no confusion. The Congress sent a few names to us this morning and we have no objection to it," Patel told the media persons.

Nomination process for the election of the new Speaker will be completed by today itself and the election for the post will be conducted on Sunday.

NCP MLA Dilip Walse Patil was appointed as pro tem speaker of the Assembly on Friday to conduct the floor test today.

As per the assembly results, the Shiv Sena has 56 MLAs, NCP has 54 and Congress has 44 in the 288-member state Assembly. The pro tem speaker has a casting vote in case of a tie.