Rahul Narwekar’s ‘Said So’ Moment? As SC Lays Disqualification Decision at His Door, All About the Speaker

Only Speaker can decide on the disqualification of MLAs, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar had told News18, hours before the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that he would take the final call on the disqualification of 16 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde faction “within reasonable time”.

While the Supreme Court said the Speaker’s decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group as chief whip of the Sena was illegal, it noted that the issue needed to be examined by a larger bench.

Narwekar, while speaking to News18, had expressed confidence that the Shinde government was stable. “This government has already established its majority on the floor of the House and looking at the numbers it has, I don’t see any threat to the government,” he had said.

On the issue of disqualification, he held the Speaker’s powers supreme and said he hoped the court would not intervene in the decision making.

“The Honourable Supreme Court has heard this case at length. Many contentious issue were debated in this hearing but I am of the opinion that the issue of disqualification of members on the grounds of defection can only be decided by the way of petition before the Speaker. Speaker can only hear and decide such petitions. Judiciary, executive and legislature enjoy equal position in the Constitution. Therefore, to maintain constitutional discipline, I am sure the court won’t intervene in the decision-making powers of the Speaker,” he had said.

As the political knot returns to Narwekar to be untangled, News18 takes a look at the Speaker:

Narwekar, the MLA from Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai, is the son-in-law of NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, who is chairman of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and had been earlier associated with the Sharad Pawar-led party and also the Shiv Sena.

Narwekar was with the Shiv Sena for nearly 15 years before he resigned in 2014. A party spokesperson, he quit over the issue of nomination to the Maharashtra Legislative council.

After resigning from the Sena, he joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and contested the Lok Sabha election from the Maval constituency. However, he lost the election and came at the third position with just 15 per cent vote share.

In 2019, ahead of the assembly elections, Narwekar joined the BJP. He contested the assembly elections from Colaba and won the seat by defeating the Congress candidate by over 15,000 votes.

An advocate by profession, Narwekar’s father, Suresh Narwekar, was a Municipal Councillor from Colaba. His brother Makarand Narwekar is a second-term Municipal Councillor and his sister-in-law Harshita Narwekar is a Municipal Councillor.