Congress MLA Nana Patole has been elected as Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. Mr Patole's election came after the BJP took back the name of Kisan Kathore as the party's nominee with minutes to go before the 10 am deadline. It is a tradition in the Maharashtra Assembly for the Speaker to be elected unopposed. The election was to have been held today, a day after the ruling Sena-Congress-NCP alliance cleared a floor test conducted by pro-tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil of the NCP.
