After spending eight days in Assam, rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and other dissident MLAs from his party and Independents on Wednesday evening left Guwahati for Goa, from where they will go to Mumbai on Thursday.
A chartered flight, hired from private carrier SpiceJet, took off at 6:56 pm from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport and headed towards Dabolim Airport in Goa, official sources said.
The dissident MLAs had planned to leave Guwahati at around 3 pm, but they delayed their departure till the Supreme Court started hearing at 5 pm. The departure was further delayed by two more hours.
In what seems to be an apparent bid to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, dissident legislators of Shiv Sena along with some Independent MLAs were camping in Guwahati, around 2,700 km away from Mumbai, since early morning of June 22.
Minutes before leaving Guwahati on Wednesday evening, Shinde said the dissident MLAs will abide by the directives of the Supreme Court on the plea by his party challenging the floor test ordered by the Maharashtra governor.
“The Supreme Court decision (on the case) will come in a while from now. We will do as per the top court order,” he told reporters at Guwahati airport.
“We will reach Mumbai on Thursday and participate in the floor test. We will decide our future strategy after that,” he said when asked if the dissidents will support a BJP-led government.
The Supreme Court was hearing Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu’s plea against the Maharashtra governor’s direction to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take a floor test in the assembly on Thursday.
Shinde also vehemently denied that they are “rebels”, asserting they are the “real Shiv Sainiks”.
“We are Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sainiks. We will take forward the Hindutva ideology. We will work for the development of Maharashtra and people of the state,” he added.
The Maharashtra MLAs, led by Shinde, checked out of the hotel in Guwahati around 5 pm to reach the airport.
After delaying their departure by around two hours, the dissident MLAs decided to leave for Goa, from where they will go to Mumbai, sources said.
The MLAs, their associates and some family members left the Radisson Blu hotel in four air-conditioned luxury buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation. The buses reached the airport, around 15 km away, under a heavy security cover.
Assam Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Ashok Singhal, BJP MP Pallab Lochan Das, and MLAs Diganta Kalita and Sushanta Borgohain accompanied the Maharashtra MLAs to the airport.
Guwahati Police Commissioner Harmeet Singh, Joint Commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta and other senior officers were also present at the airport. Hundreds of policemen were deployed at the airport in the morning.
