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Arun Gujarathi elected Maharashtra speaker

Former Maharashtra minister Arun Gujarathi was today elected the 14th speaker of the Maharashtra legislative assembly through a secret ballot.

Gujarathi of the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine defeated Girish Bapat of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance by a margin of 22 votes.

He polled 154 as against 132 by Bapat. One vote was declared invalid.

Only 287 of the 288 newly elected members of the lower house cast their votes as one member Marzban Patrawala of the Congress died on the first day of the newly constituted assembly session.

The voting through secret ballot began at 1100 hours today and the process continued till 1300 hours. Pro-tem Speaker Shankarrao Kolhe appointed former ministers Gajanan Kirtikar and R J Purohit from the Sena-BJP side and minister Dr Padamsinh Patil and minister of state Kripanshakar Singh for counting of votes.

The house re-assembled at 1400 hours and the pro-tem speaker declared that since Gujarathi had polled more votes than Bapat, he (Gujarathi) has been elected speaker.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and leader of the opposition Narayan Rane escorted Gujarathi to the speaker's chair.

UNI

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