Senior Congress MLA Nana Patole was on Sunday elected speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Pro tem speaker Dilip Walse Patil made the announcement after BJP candidate Kisan Kathore withdrew his nomination earlier in the day.

Chief minister Thackeray and some senior MLAs then escorted Patole to the speaker's chair.

Patil was on Friday appointed as pro tem speaker of the Assembly ahead of the floor test of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

The Thackeray-led government comfortably won the floor test with the support of 169 legislators, 24 above the majority mark of 145, shortly after the BJP walked out of the Assembly raising procedural issues.