Rebel MLAs at the Guwahati airport before they took a chartered flight.
Rebel Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde left their hotel in Guwahati and boarded a chartered flight to Goa just after 5pm today, before they move to Mumbai tomorrow as the Uddhav Thackeray-led government faces a trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly.
A hotel is booked for them in Goa already, sources said.
The 40 MLAs were at a five-star hotel in Guwahati in BJP-ruled Assam for the past week as they try to unseat the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government. Their move to Goa, another BJP-ruled state, is apparently for convenience as it's closer to Mumbai.
Eknath Shinde claims to have the support of 50 MLAs, including 40 of the Sena's 55 MLAs. The rebels want the Sena to shun the NCP and Congress to form a government with "natural ideological ally" BJP instead. "We are not rebels. We are Shiv Sena... We will work for the Hindutva ideology and development of the state," Mr Shinde said at the Guwahati airport today.
Before they finally left, the MLAs had boarded buses at 10 in the morning too, but returned after a visit to the famous Kamakhya Temple. They had said they would wait for the Supreme Court's order on Team Thackeray's petition challenging the Governor's order for an assembly vote.
The court is yet to decide, but the MLAs left for their next destination anyway.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ordered the test of strength after BJP leaders met him and told him that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition has lost its majority The Thackeray camp went to the Supreme Court, arguing that the order is illegal because 16 rebel MLAs have yet to respond to the Deputy Speaker's notices for disqualification under the anti-defection law.