Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, along with his MLAs and MPs and their families, visited Guwahati on Saturday. Two special flights were booked to carry the 180 members led by Shinde and an advance team to make all the preparations.
This was the second time Shinde, his 40 MLAs and some independents were visiting the metropolis—in June this year, following their revolt against Uddhav Thackeray, it was Guwahati to which the rebel bunch headed after staying at Surat in Gujarat for around three days.
Shinde had visited the renowned Kamakhya Devi temple before leaving Assam in June, and returned to the north-eastern state on chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s invitation. The group once again took blessings at the temple before meeting Sarma in the evening. “We have sought good days for the people of Maharashtra from Kamakhya Devi. Maharashtra and Assam share a special relationship,” Shinde said after visiting the temple.
The CM and his group were declared state guests by the BJP Assam government and thus provided with security. Three ministers from the government welcomed the chief minister in the traditional way by presenting him with a phulam gamchha (an article of significance for the people of Assam) and a japi (the traditional conical hat of Assam). Talking to the media in Guwahati, Shinde said he was happy with the reception he and his group had got in the state.
Back home, however, the trip is being seen as a put-up show of unity, as there are speculations that several legislators in Shinde’s Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena are upset about not being inducted in the state cabinet in the first expansion. Six of the MLAs, including three ministers—Tanaji Sawant, Gulabrao Patil, Abdul Sattar, Sanjay Gaikwad, Chandrakant Patil, Mahendra Dalvi—chose to skip the trip. A Shinde faction MLA said the reason the MLAs gave for their not going was earlier commitments.
Opposition leaders had a field day criticising Shinde and his party. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, while addressing a farmers’ rally in Buldhana, remarked that Shinde and his supporters had no time to visit farmers affected by seasonal rain. “They have gone to Guwahati to seek blessings but I have come to Buldhana to take the farmers’ blessings,” he said. “If they have guts, these traitor MLAs and MPs should declare that they will not contest elections on BJP tickets. They want the Shiv Sena and Balasaheb’s name and face but for blessings they look towards Modi.”
Taking a jibe at the temple visit, leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar said, “Kamakhya Devi asks for the sacrifice of buffaloes. Whom are they going to sacrifice now?”
Shinde, on his part, slammed Opposition leaders for attacking him, and retorted that he and his MLAs had gone to Guwahati “for the people of Maharashtra and seeking the removal of all crises from the state”. “With the blessings of Devi, we got the government and now have again come here. The Opposition should be careful while speaking about this visit,” he said.
Interestingly, two BJP leaders—food and civil supplies minister Ravindra Chavan and Mohit Bhartiya—also visited Guwahati along with Shinde and his supporters. They were among those who were with Shinde and his rebels in Guwahati after the revolt in June.
Sattar, BSS MLA and state agriculture minister who was in Nashik, denied any discontent in the party. “No one is upset,” he said. “Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis are coordinating with all the MLAs. I would also have been part of the trip but since it was rescheduled from November 21 to November 26, I could not join on account of prior commitments.
The group will return to Mumbai by Sunday afternoon.
(With inputs from Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha)
