Will have to put in extra hours to hear disqualification pleas: Rahul Narwekar

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday said that he would need to put in extra hours to hear disqualification pleas while ensuring smooth functioning of the House reported news agency PTIThe Winter Session of the state legislature is scheduled to be held in Nagpur from December 7 to December 20Speaking to reporters in Nagpur Rahul Narwekar said I need to ensure the smooth functioning of the legislative assembly as well as complete the disqualification hearings pending before me It looks like I will be working from 9 am to 10 pm in this period to give justice to both responsibilities reported PTIRahul Narwekar is hearing crosspetitions filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each others MLAs following a split in the party last year reported PTINarwekar said he would hear the petitions on Thursday for two and a half hours at the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur reported PTIThe speaker said it would be a challenging task for him to pay attention to both hearings as well as smooth functioning of the House reported PTIThe Shiv Sena UBT is seeking disqualification of Shindeled 40 rebel MLAs who revolted against Thackeray which not only led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government in June 2022 but also caused a split in the 57yearold party reported PTIThe Shinde camp has alleged that the documents based on which the Thackerayled group has been seeking disqualification of their rival MLAs are fake reported PTIThe Supreme Court has asked the speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions by December 31 reported PTIEarlier Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on November 27 said the Eknath Shindeled government is stable and enjoys the majority support in the Lower House of the state legislatureNarwekar asserted he will take a decision on disqualification petitions filed by rival Shiv Sena factions within the Supreme Courtset time frame reported PTIHe slammed Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut for making statements questioning stability of the Shiv SenaBharatiya Janata PartyNCP Ajit Pawar faction government saying it has the magic number on its sideAsked by reporters about Rauts consistent claim that the ruling coalition is unstable Narwekar said A government falls only when it fails the number game in the legislative assembly and not because of comments made outside in public The state government has the magic number support of 145plus MLAs People should not make such commentsThe Maharashtra assembly has a strength of 288 and support of at least 145 MLAs is required by a party or coalition to form a governmentWith inputs from PTI