Congress' Nana Patole elected Maharashtra speaker

New Delhi : One day after Uddhav Thackeray government won the floor test in Maharashtra assembly with 169 votes out of 288-member house, MVA candidate Nana Patole has been elected as the speaker of Maharashtra Assembly unopposed as the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew nomination of its candidate Kisan Kathore on Sunday morning.

"We have decided to withdraw Kisan Kathore’s nomination following a request from the ruling side. Maharashtra has a healthy tradition of electing the Speaker unopposed following which we have also decided to withdraw nomination of our candidate today," Patil said.

"Earlier, Opposition also filled the form for the post of Assembly Speaker, but after request by other MLAs and to keep dignity of Assembly intact, they have taken back the name. Now, election of Speaker to happen unopposed," ANI quoted NCP leader Chagan Bhujbal as saying.

On Saturday, MVP had announced the name of Nana Patole, four-time MLA from Nagpur, for the speaker post.

Before the announcement was made, Patole admitted they were trying to make the election unopposed and all the parties were keen to continue the tradition of healthy democracy.