Leaving On A Jet Plane - Camp Shinde Finally Departs For Goa

Suitcases were rapidly packed, unpacked, and then repacked at the Guwahati hotel today where 40 MLAs of the Shiv Sena have set up base camp as they try to boot out Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister of Maharashtra.  

The MLAs boarded a bus at 10 am and headed to the famous Kamakhya temple. They were to fly to Goa then - to another five-star that has been booked for them- but suddenly, a late checkout was added to the itinerary. They finally departed  for Goa - on a chartered plane - at 7 pm.

"We will wait for the verdict," said one of the MLAs, Deepak Kesarkar,  talking to NDTV before the group took off from Assam. He was referring to the hearing scheduled for 5 pm in the Supreme Court. What happens next in the Maharashtra political crisis depends on that.

Team Thackeray - stunted to about 15 MLAs including 4 ministers -has asked the Supreme Court to over-rule any moves that call for him to prove his majority right now in the Maharashtra Assembly. Those moves were put into motion last night with a BJP congregation, led by Devendra Fadnavis, who hopes to return as Maharashtra Chief Minister. The BJP team visited Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari to ask that Mr Thackeray undergo a floor test urgently because his support has shrunk to well below the safety mark.

It is true that the rebels within the Sena add upto 39. They are led by Eknath Shinde, who was, till the revolt began, a senior minister in Mr Thackeray's government and party.  If the rebels remain united, and pool with the BJP, they can, along with a handful of Independents, bring down the current government.  

Mr Thackeray has said in the Supreme Court that a vote cannot be held because the court has yet to decide on whether 16 rebel MLAs should be disqualified for anti-party activities. The Supreme Court last week set a date of July 16 to further hear that case. Till that verdict is known, Team Thackeray says, a vote cannot be allowed.

But the Governor has written to Mr Thackeray late this afternoon, making his stand clear, stating that "I am confident that your government is in a minority."

In faraway Guwahati, the rebels have been in a holding pattern, taking their cues from the BJP.  Mr Shinde has openly declared that his faction, based on its numbers, should be recognised legally as the real Shiv Sena, and that what it wants, more than anything else, is to reunite with the BJP, which has provided roadside assistance at every stage since Mr Shinde and the first batch of rebels left Mumbai in a bus in the middle of the night over a week ago. They were escorted to a five-star in Surat by the Gujarat police, then flew the next day to Guwahati, where BJP ministers have visited them at their hotel and accompanied them on their temple visit this morning.

"We are so grateful to them," Mr Kesarkar told NDTV today, "we have been hosted very thoughtfully and graciously here. When we arrived, we did not know of the extent of the floods in the state.  We have given a cheque of 51 lakhs to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund."

There has been resounding criticism of the Assam government's attention to Camp Shinde at a time when thousands of villages are submerged under water. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told NDTV a few days ago that "We have nothing to do with the Maharastra MLAs staying in Guwahati. We are focused on flood management, our people know our attention is on floods and I am touring flood affected areas every day."

"We will try to reach Maharashtra whenever it happens, we will come there," Mr Kesarkar told NDTV, making it clear that the bio-bubble in Guwahati would move to Mumbai just in time for the vote.  That helps keep the team impervious to overtures from Mr Thackeray, vital to keeping the revolt against him intact.

Last evening, Mr Thackeray made a second public appeal to the rebels, urging them to return to home base so they could talk face-to-face. "You are still my family, let's talk it out," he said.