Maharashtra Speaker to preside over review committee of anti-defection law

Mumbai: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly’s Speaker Rahul Narwekar will be the head of a committee to review the Anti-Defection Law.

The announcement was made at the 84th All India Presiding Officers' Conference in Mumbai—which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and addressed, among others, by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Birla made the announcement at the end of the conference.

The appointment is significant as Narwekar has presided over the disqualification case involving the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and is currently conducting similar proceedings involving the Ajit Pawar-headed NCP faction and the Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule-led NCP group.

On July 3, 2022, Narwekar was appointed the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Narvekar (47), an MLA from Colaba seat, belongs to a political family,

His father, Suresh Narwekar, was a municipal councillor from Mumbai, and his brother Makarand was a two-term municipal councillor from Ward No 227.

His sister-in-law, Harshata, is a councillor from Ward No 226.

Earlier, Narwekar was a member of the Shiv Sena, which he had left after the party denied him a ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. He joined the NCP and contested the general election in 2019 from Maval, which he lost. Thereafter, ahead of 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, he joined the BJP.

A B.Com and LLB, Narwekar is a lawyer by profession and has represented Shiv Sena in many cases. He is involved in many social and educational causes.