40 MLAs, 70 Rooms & 3 Chartered Planes: How Maha Crisis Turned Into An 'Expensive Affair' for Shinde

The Maharashtra political crisis continues to unfold with rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, led by state minister Eknath Shinde, were first moved from Maharashtra to Gujarat and later taken to Assam in chartered planes and are currently camped at a Guwahati hotel.

The MLAs, officially 37 in number, have passed a resolution declaring Shinde their leader and expressing their dissatisfaction with the ally NCP.

However, it has been an expensive affair for Shinde to get the MLAs out of Maharashtra and prepare for a tussle that doesn’t seem to resolve in the coming days.

70 Rooms at Guwahati Hotel

The rebel MLAs along with Shinde have been lodged at Radisson Blu, a luxury hotel located on National Highway 37 on the outskirts of Assam’s main city.

According to IANS, a total of 70 rooms have been booked for Rs 56 lakh at the luxury hotel, which has extensive event space, an outdoor pool, a spa and five restaurants.

So, the daily estimated expense for food and other services at Rs 8 lakh (Rs 56 lakh for seven days), taking the total seven-day cost to Rs 1.12 crore, the report quoted sources as saying.

The hotel has 196 rooms and apart from the 70 rooms booked for the rebel MLAs and their teams, the management is not accepting new bookings, a report in NDTV said.

However, the corporate deals that have already been booked earlier are exempted from the prohibition. The banquet and the restaurant of the hotel remains closed to any guests, except for those staying at the hotel.

Surat Accommodation

The political crisis began in the state on Tuesday when Eknath Shinde became ‘unavailable’ and along with some MLAs travelled to Surat in Gujarat. Shinde had chartered a private SpiceJet aircraft to take the MLAs out of Maharashtra.

While in Surat, the MLAs were camping at the Le Meridien Hotel, where the cost of rooms start at Rs 2,300 per night.

Chartered Plane to Assam

According to a report in Firstpost, the cost of an Embraer ERJ-135LR aircraft, which has a capacity of 30 passengers, is over Rs 50 lakh for a trip between Surat to Guwahati.

The Shinde camp had two additional smaller business jets that were later flown to Guwahati after political crisis began in Maharashtra. The cost of hiring smaller aircraft is around Rs 35 lakh, the report added.

While there is no official record or confirmation on the cost incurred by the Shinde camp during the crisis, however, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was an expensive affair.

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