Pawar: Next speaker of Maha Legislative Assembly will be from Congress party.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said the three constituents of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have decided that the next speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly will be from the Congress party.

The post fell vacant after Congress MLA Nana Patole resigned in February this year to take over as the party’s Maharashtra unit president.

Pawar said, “The three parties (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) have decided that the new Speaker will be from the Congress party only. We all will support whatever the party (Congress) decides about the speaker (candidate)”.

Recently, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to take a call on holding Assembly Speaker's election.

However, the election of Speaker cannot be held during the recently concluded two-day monsoon session of the state legislature.