Eknath Shinde, a minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of Maharashtra, has reportedly left Mumbai along with his loyalists and is currently stationed in Surat Gujarat. The development happened after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shocked the ruling coalition by winning 5 seats in Legislative Council Polls.
In a major political development, in Maharashtra at least 30 Shiv Sena MLAs are holding a 5-star hotel in Surat, Gujarat. The rebel MLAs are led by Eknath Shinde who is the minister for urban development in Maharashtra and also a senior Shiv Sena leader.
Meanwhile, heavy police and security deployment has been put by the Gujarat Government outside the luxury hotel at Magdalla Crossroads in Surat where the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs are holding. The movement of unauthorized persons has also been stopped.
The political drama in Maharashtra in which the MLAs of the ruling party cross-voted for the BJP is the reason for which the MLAs suddenly missing from Mumbai and reached Surat. This development can even topple the Uddhav Thackeray government.
Sources close to the happenings in BJP Gujarat informed that Sena leader Shinde and other rebel leaders were in constant touch with Gujarat BJP President CR Patil. It is speculated that after reaching Gujarat the MLAs met the Gujarat BJP chief.
A Shiv Sena leader under the condition of anonymity said; “ Shinde was at the Shiv Sena office in the Legislative Assembly premises on Monday when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was present there. But, no one knows about him after that. He was not present during the counting ( for MLC polls)”.
The opposition BJP on Monday bagged all five seats it contested in Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, which were scheduled for 10 seats, while Dalit leader and congress candidate Chandrakant Handore lost, which is another setback for the ruling alliance after the Rajya Sabha polls debacle earlier this month. Two candidates from Sena and NCP won, while Congress managed to get only one seat.
Late-night development
In a late night development, it is being reported that the rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, currently holding in Le-Meridian Hotel Surat will be taken to another BJP-ruled state Assam. A SpiceJet chartered flight which holds the capacity of 150 people has been booked to take the MLAs to Guwahati. The MLAs who will be traveling to Guwahati are – Anil Babar, Bharat Gogavale, Mahendra Dalvi, Mahendra Thorve, Shambhuraj Desai, Shahji Patil, Mahesh Shinde, Balaji Kalyankar, Ramesh Bornare, Dnyanraj Chougule, Tanaji Sawant, Sandipanro Bhumre, Nitin Deshmukh, Abdul Sattar, Suhas Kande, Sanjay Shrisat, Prakash Surve, Kishor Patil, Pradeep Jaiswal, Sanjay Shrisat, Eknath Shinde, Rajkumar Patel, Suhas Kande, Sanjay Raikumar, Sanjay Gaikwad, Rajkumar Patel, Lata Sonavne, Pratap Sarnaik, Shrinivas Vanga,Prakash Abitkar, Narendra Bhondekar, Viswanath Bhoir, Shantaram More, Yamini Jadhav, Balaji Kinikar , Chimanrao Patel, Kishor Patil, Suhas Kande.
Uddhav calls for a cabinet meeting on Wednesday
On 22 June, a cabinet meeting of the Maharashtra Government was called by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackrey. All cabinet ministers are ordered to be present at the meeting scheduled on 22nd June. On 21st June all the parties of the MVA alliance conducted separate meetings in Mumbai. The Congress and NCP have put pressure on Shiv Sena to bring back their rebels.
How was the MVA formed?
If we go back to 2019 when the Maharashtra Assembly assembly elections happened, the allies of that time BJP and Shiv Sena won the mandate to form a government. It was expected that Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP would again become the Chief Minister of the state, although the partners were no longer on best terms, nothing seemed beyond reconciliation.
But the Sena was tired of playing second in command and they wanted their own Chief Minister which the BJP was not ready to give. The Sena in frustration broke away from the BJP and this created a political vacuum in the state, as no party had the numbers to form a government on their own.
Then more surprises started unfolding in the politics of Maharashtra, the Sena was in talks with its arch-rivals NCP and Congress to form the government. Negotiations continued for too long due to which President’s rule was imposed on the state.
But more drama was in store. Ajit Pawar the nephew of NCP chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sarad Pawar rebelled against his own party and took his lobby of MLAs to Raj Bhawan early in the morning where Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister and Fadnavis as the Chief Minister. But finally, the Sharad Pawar magic worked and the rebel MLAs returned to the NCP camp. On November 26, Fadnavis resigned as the Chief Minister even before facing a floor test in the Assembly. After a drama of more than a month, the MVA government was also formed with Uddhav Thackrey as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar as his Deputy.
