Since February 2021, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has not had a Speaker. From available indications, this has not affected the functioning of the House. But it has created unprecedented tensions between the Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, and Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on the one hand and between the constituents of the MVA on the other. And if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the political patriarch of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar, politics in the state might have taken a dramatically different turn.
The back story has the overlay of government-governor tensions. Nana Patole used to be in