A chartered flight carrying Shiv Sena MLAs who rebelled against the party, ushering in a crisis to the MVA government in Maharashtra, arrived in BJP-ruled Assam on Wednesday. The flight from Surat in Gujarat landed at Guwahati's Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi international airport at around 6.30am. According to multiple reports, the exact number of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs travelling in the flight is not known immediately but the flight had 89 passengers, including onboard crew. The Maharashtra MLAs are being taken in special buses to a city hotel with police protection.
Eknath Shinde, the leader of rebellion in ruling Shiv Sena on Wednesday claimed he has 40 MLAs with him. Shinde, who arrived at the Guwahati airport, spoke to reporters for the first time since his decision to rebel against his own party. On late Monday night, Shinde had left Mumbai with several Sena MLAs and stayed at a hotel in Gujarat's Surat city. However, after holding talks with BJP leaders, he decided to shift to Guwahati. Speaking to reporters outside Guwahati airport, Shinde said: "Here 40 MLAs are with me. Additional 10 MLAs will join me soon. I do not want to criticise any one. We are keen on continuing the Sena founded by late Balasaheb Thackeray," he said.
Shinde and an unknown number of MLAs had reached the hotel in Surat late Monday night, hours after legislative council polls which saw the BJP winning a fifth seat despite not having enough numbers in the Assembly, possibly due to suspected cross-voting from the ruling bloc besides support from Independent MLAs and those from smaller parties. After the council poll results, Shinde went incommunicado and later it came to light he is camping in the hotel along with some party MLAs.
How do the numbers bear out?
As of now, given the churn and cross-voting in Maharashtra legislative council polls, the exact number of MLAs who have defected from the MVA coalition is a moving target.
The Shiv Sena, which heads the MVA, has 55 MLAs, followed by allies NCP (53) and the Congress (44) in the 288-assembly where the current simple majority mark is 144.
The number of MLAs who defected from the Sena have varied from 12 to 16, 23 and 40—it all depends on who you ask.
Why did Shinde rebel?
The exact reasons are still unknown. However, according to multiple sources, Shinde's demand was that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray renew the party's alliance with the BJP. Reports claimed Thackeray had sent his confidante Milind Narvekar and Shinde's aide Ravindra Phatak to Surat to talk to the rebel leader. A call was made to Thackeray from Surat.
Meanwhile, Sena has housed its MLAs in different hotels in Mumbai. Party MLAs have been housed at different hotels in Mumbai. This has been done to avoid poaching of legislators.
-Inputs from PTI
