Eknath Shinde has
moved to a hotel in Assam capital Guwahati with fellow rebel MLAs while a plans
to stage a coup in Maharashtra. Shinde’s decision to move to Assam came after
he had a word with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray over the phone. At the time,
he was stationed at a hotel in Surat.

Having moved to a
hotel in Guwahati, Shinde thought he could make his political moves unperturbed
by the movements in Maharashtra politics and protected by the BJP government in
Assam. But that was not to be. On Thursday morning, swarms of Trinamool Congress
supporters surrounded the hotel where Shinde is stationed and raised slogans
against the BJP government.

The protesters,
led my Assam Trinamool chief Ripun Bora, claimed that the BJP-run state
government was pouring all its resources in protecting MLAs from Maharashtra
while doing hardly anything for the flood-hit regions of Assam. The north-eastern
state has been hit by massive floods killing at least 89 people. Nearly 55 lakh
people have been displaced by the deluge.

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Trinamool chief
Mamata Banerjee, a close friend and ally of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
chief Sharad Pawar, seems to have exerted her influence on the crisis through
the protests. There hasn’t been any official response on her behalf on the
crisis.

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Meanwhile, Eknath
Shinde is said to have garnered the support of 40 out of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs. Shinde
needed only 37 for lending support to the BJP to form the government. The rebel
MLA, however, doesn’t seem keen on ditching the Shiv Sena. Calling the Maha
Vikas Aghadi government an “unnatural alliance,” Shinde has sought for Shiv
Sena to lend support to BJP to form a new government. The BJP, which has stayed
largely mum on the crisis, is reportedly waiting for the government to fall.