Shiv Sena MLAs, who have rebelled against the party bringing a crisis to the government in Maharashtra, are being taken to Assam and expected to reach Guwahati early Wednesday, sources said.
Amid a political turmoil in his state, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met several Maharashtra leaders in back-to-back meetings. In the meeting with Shiv Sena leaders, he said he was confident that rebel minister Eknath Shinde will return to the party soon.
Uddhav Thackeray's aides met with Eknath Shinde. During the meeting that lasted for nearly two hours, Eknath Shinde spoke to Mr Thackeray over the phone, as per sources. The senior leader demanded a-Shiv Sena alliance government in the state during the ten-minute phone call, they said.
Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and Shiv Sena strongman Eknath Shinde plunged the ruling alliance in the state into a political crisis as he rebelled against his party and landed in a Surat hotel in Gujarat - ruled by the BJP - along with some Sena MLAs, putting a huge question mark on the stability of the two-and-a-half-years old MVA dispensation.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party swiftly moved against Mr Shinde (58), an MLA from Thane district, and removed him as the party's group leader in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
