Maha power game plays out in Assam, more rebels join Shinde
GUWAHATI/MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance has benefited only the other constituents while the Shiv Sena has been systematically cheated, Eknath Shinde, the leader of the rebel faction said in tweets after reaching Gauhati on Wednesday.
Shinde said the alliance weakened the party in a way that made it “essential to get out of the unnatural front for the survival of the party and Shiv Sainiks,” posting tweets immediately after Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray broke his silence in the evening.
Earlier, the Shinde camp moved to Assam, checking into a hotel at the state capital early in the morning. “Forty Shiv Sena MLAS are present with me in Gauhati and all of us will take Balasaheb Thackeray’s Hindutva and legacy forward. I don’t want to comment on others or other issues at present,” Shinde told journalists.
Though the Sena leader claimed he had 40 party MLAS with him — three more than the magic number of 37 needed to split the party without attracting disqualification under the anti-defection law — a purported resolution document released by the camp suggested different numbers. There were a total of 34 signatories, including two from the Prahar Janshakti Party (PJP) and two independent legislators, effectively meaning the number of Sena MLAS was 30.
From among these, one MLA — Nitin Deshmukh — returned to Mumbai, leaving the breakaway faction, and ostensibly bringing its tally down to 29. But by late evening, two more Sena MLAS arrived, along with two other independent legislators, taking the Gauhati camp’s strength to 37, of which 31 were Shiv Sena members.
Shinde, therefore, needed six more Shiv Sena legislators to hit the 37-mark, and insiders from the rebel group insisted that these were on their way.
The resolution document showed the signatories had reaffirmed Shinde as their leader, and the grouping decided that the party leadership’s decision to enter the MVA alliance was “ideologically opposite” to its own, and the administration in power was now “corrupt government”.
The letter alleged “enormous discontent” among the cadres of the Shiv Sena for forming a government with the Nationalist Congress Party, a regional arch-rival that had been ideologically opposed to the Sena.
In the morning at Guwahati, Shinde and other Sena and independent MLAS were welcomed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Assam, Pallab Lochan Das, and party legislator Sushanta Borgohain when they landed at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport around 7am.
The rebel MLAS were earlier at a five-star hotel in Surat after leaving Maharashtra on Monday night and plunging the ruling government into an existential crisis. Both Gujarat and Assam are Bjpruled states. “I am not aware of any revolt. I came to meet two to three of my Sena MLA friends at the airport...,” Borgohain said.