The Maharashtra assembly will vote at 11 am today to elect its Speaker a day after Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government sailed through the floor test amid protests led by the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis. The BJP has nominated Kisan S Kathore as its candidate for today's election against the Congress's Nana Patolem, the nominee of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance.

In another development in the Maharashtra Assembly impasse, President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Arvind Sawant. "The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Shri Arvind Ganpat Sawant from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution," the Rashtrapati Bhawan press release stated.

Shiv Sena on Thursday unanimously elected senior minister Eknath Shinde as the party's legislative leader. His name was proposed by Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray at a party meeting held today at the Shiv Sena Bhawan in central Mumbai. While Eknath Shinde was elected as the party's legislative leader, Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu has been elected as the chief whip.