In the midst of intense political turmoil in Maharashtra, 40 “rebel” MLAs, including Cabinet Minister Eknath Shinde and 33 Shiv Sena members as well as seven Independents, arrived here on Wednesday morning. They then checked into a luxury hotel.
According to sources, the Shiv Sena MLAs blamed the Congress and NCP for their decision to leave the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance and said that their leader Uddhav Thackeray had sacrificed Balasaheb Thackeray’s Hindutva doctrine for political purposes.
Sushanta Borgohain Shinde and Pallab Lochan Das, two BJP MPs who met the MLAs at the airport and initially declined to speak to reporters gathered outside the terminal, subsequently claimed to have “the support of 40 MLAs.”
The Assam State Transport Corporation provided three buses to transport the MLAs to the hotel when they arrived from Surat.
