MUMBAI: For the second time in the last four days, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and PWD Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari here to discuss finalising the date "soon" for the Assembly Speaker's election during the ongoing budget session, sources said.
Though the date for holding the Speaker's election has not been finalised yet, Koshyari seemed positive on the issue during the meeting held at Raj Bhavan, they said.
This was the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) second meeting with the governor in less than a week to discuss the issue of the speaker's election.
On March 4, an MVA delegation had met Koshyari on the same issue.
They had also demanded the governor to appoint 12 MLCs from his quota to the legislative council, a proposal pending with Koshyari for over a year.
Pawar and Chavan were part of that delegation too.
"Today's meeting with the governor was a follow-up of the earlier meeting. The MVA wants the election (to the speaker's post) to be held soon. The date has not been fixed yet, but the governor seemed positive," sources said.
The MVA delegation had on March 4 requested the governor to hold the speaker's election on March 9 or any other date which the latter thought fit as the budget session of the state legislature is currently underway.
The speaker's post has been lying vacant since last February after incumbent Nana Patole quit following his appointment as Maharashtra Congress president.
The governor in a letter dated June 24, 2021, had instructed to fill the speaker's post immediately.
The MVA leaders said in their March 4 representation that they had subsequently (after the governor's June 24 letter) requested him to fix the date to hold the election for the speaker's post during the winter session held in December last year, but there was no response.
The NCP and Congress are the constituents of the MVA government headed by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena.