Who Is Rahul Narwekar – The New Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

Rahul Narwekar is an advocate by profession and had been associated with the Shiv Sena as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the past.

Mumbai: Gaining a majority mark at voting held via headcount, first-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar has been elected as the new Maharashtra Assembly Speaker on Sunday morning. Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi who got 107 votes. The post of Speaker was vacant since February last year after Nana Patole of Congress quit. Narvekar (45) is also the youngest ever Assembly Speaker in the country, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

Who is Rahul Narwekar?

Rahul Narwekar has been born and brought up in Colaba area of South Mumbai. He is an advocate by profession and had been associated with the Shiv Sena as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the past. He had quit the Sena after a 15-year-long association. In 2014, he was an aspirant for a state Legislative Council seat which the Sena denied to him. But, soon after, he quit the Sena to join the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from the Maval constituency on the NCP’s ticket, but lost. Subsequently, he switched to the BJP and got elected as its Colaba MLA.

Later in October 2019, Narwekar joined the BJP in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The saffron party fielded him from the upmarket Colaba constituency in South Mumbai, which he won. He is currently the state BJP’s media in-charge too.

Narwekar is the son of Suresh Narwekar who was a councillor in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). His father His brother Makarand is a second-term councillor representing ward no. 227 in the BMC, while his sister-in-law Harshata is also a councillor from the BMC’s ward number 226. His father-in-law is senior NCP leader Ramraje Nimbalkar, the former chairman of the Legislative Council.