Devendra Fadnavis over vacant post of Speaker: 'Failure of constitutional machinery'

Maharashtra Leader of Opposition and former CM Devendra Fadnavis on Friday reacted over the issue of the Speaker's post lying vacant. He said, it has never happened before that despite the Governor's recommendation, the post of assembly speaker is vacant for over a week. This is equivalent to the failure of constitutional machinery."

The post fell vacant following the resignation of Nana Patole on February 4. He later took over as the Congress's state unit chief.

Governor BS Koshyari has directed the Maharashtra legislature to hold elections for the post of Speaker of the Assembly in the first week of the budget session.

Maharashtra witnessed uproarious scenes over the issue of the Speaker's post lying vacant, resulting in a brief adjournment.

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar demanded, "the election schedule (for Speaker's post) must be announced immediately otherwise there would be President's rule."