Eknath Shinde & other rebel MLAs to be moved to Guwahati from Surat as MVA crisis deepens

Presently housed in Surat's Le-Meridian Hotel in Gujarat, the rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde will be flying to Assam, Republic learned on Tuesday. A SpiceJet chartered flight has been booked to fly the MLAs, say sources, giving details that the flight will take off at 10 p.m. from Surat, and will land in Guwahati at 12:40 a.m. 

The channel accessed an exclusive list of Shiv Sena MLAs, who would be flying to Guwahati- Mahendra Thorve, Bharat Gogavale, Mahendra Dalvi , Anil Babar , Mahesh Shinde , Shahaji Patil , Shambhuraj Desai ,Balaji Kalyankar , Dnyanraj Chougule, Ramesh Bornare,Tanaji Sawant, Sandipanrao Bhumre, Abdul Sattar, Nitin Deshmukh , Prakash Surve, Kishor Patil, Suhas Kande, Sanjay Shirsat , Pradeep Jaiswal , Sanjay Raimulkar, Sanjay Gaikwad, Eknath Shinde, Vishwanath Bhoir, Rajkumar Patel, Shantaram More, Shrinivas Vanga, Pratap Sarnaik , Prakash Abitkar, Chimanrao Patil, Narendra Bhondekar, Lata Sonavne, Yamini Jadhav, and Balaji Kinikar. Also, Rajkumar Patel — Prahar Janshakti Party from Melgha. 

The MLAs are in constant touch with the Bharatiya Janata Party and are scheduled to meet former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis was in Delhi, where he held meetings with BJP National President JP Nadda, and leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. 

Maharashtra cabinet meeting on June 22 

On June 22, a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet has been scheduled. All Cabinet Ministers have asked to be present in the meeting. Meanwhile, on June 21, all the MVA partners-- the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party, and the Congress--held separate meetings in Mumbai. The Congress and NCP have put the onus on the Sena to bring to end the rebellion started by Eknath Shinde. 

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena had sent Uddhav Thackeray's personal assistant Milind Narvekar to hold a meeting with the rebel MLAs, especially Shinde. In the meeting, the MLAs made clear that for them 'Hindutva is paramount' and they would 'not compromise' on it. They demanded that Shiv Sena and BJP enter into an alliance just like in older times. 

This assumes significance in the wake of several Shiv Sena MLAs cross-voting for BJP in the recently concluded MLC polls.