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Cong supports NCP candidate for speaker's post in Maharashtra

The Congress party today gave up its claim to the speaker's post in Maharashtra and extended its support to the candidate put up by its alliance partner - the Nationalist Congress Party.

The speaker's post was the bone of contention between the two parties when they held prolonged negotiations with each other in the run-up to the government formation.

However, the NCP candidate Arun Gujarathi is likely to face a stiff competition from Girish Bapat of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.

Bapat's candidature has come as a surprise for those who were expecting that the speaker in the dissolved assembly, Datta Nalawade of the Shiv Sena, would be renominated by the party.

Speaking to reporters in Bombay today former chief minister and leader of the saffron alliance in the assembly, Narayan Rane, said: "Our candidate had served his term and we felt there was a need for change. This time we have decided to give the BJP a chance."

Asked why didn't the combine support the Congress-NCP candidate and settle down for the deputy speaker's post in return, former deputy chief minister, Gopinath Munde, who was accompanying Rane, said: "The Congress-NCP combine has a thin majority in the house. We think we have a chance.''

"If they lose the speaker's post, the Congress-NCP government will have no moral right to rule the state," Rane added.

Meanwhile, in a related development senior Congress leader Ranjit Deshmukh, who has been sulking ever since he was denied the chief minister's post, today ruled out any possibility of cross-voting during the speaker's election.

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