Maharashtra crisis: More MLAs join rebel Sena MLAs camp in Assam

Mumbai, Jun 23: In a shot in the arm for dissident Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, three more MLAs from Maharashtra arrived in Guwahati in Assam, where other party rebels are camping at present.

This is likely to add to the woes of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which is battling a survival crisis following the rebellion of senior Sena minister Shinde and a sizeable number of MLAs belonging to the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. Shinde has claimed that he has 46 MLAs supporting him.

Shinde on Wednesday claimed that he has the support of 34 MLAs of his party and passed a resolution on in the evening reinstating himself as the leader of the Shiv Sena legislative party, a day after he was removed from the post by the Sena leadership.

He also posted a tweet saying the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra was an "unnatural alliance" and it was imperative for his party to walk out of the coalition with the NCP and the Congress for its own sake and that of party workers.

After the Council poll results, Shinde went incommunicado and later it came to light he is camping in the hotel along with some party MLAs.

Shinde has claimed the support of 46 MLAs and this is more than enough to circumvent the anti-defection law and bring down the government. On Wednesday evening, four MLAs - Manjula Gavit, Chandrakant Patil, Gulabrao Patil and Yogesh Kadam had joined the camp.

The Sena has 55 members in the 288-member assembly while allies NCP and Congress have 53 and 44 respectively. The MVA is also backed by 14 other MLAs and together it has the support of 166 in the assembly where the magic number is 144.