Chartered flight with rebel Shiv Sena MLA on way to Guwahati

A group of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Eknath Shinde, were taken to Surat from Mumbai on June 21 and then flown to Guwahati the next day

A chartered aircraft from Surat in Gujarat carrying three passengers, including at least one dissident MLA from Maharashtra, is set to reach Guwahati on Sunday evening, an official source said.

The aircraft, hired from IndoPacific Aviation Pvt Ltd, is scheduled to land at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati at 6 pm, the source told PTI.

"The flight will come from Surat. There will be three passengers on board -- two men and one woman," he said.

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The exact identities of the passengers are not known immediately, but "at least one MLA will be there in the plane", the source said.

In what seems to be an apparent bid to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, dissident legislators of Shiv Sena, which heads the ruling coalition, have been camping in Guwahati, around 2,700 km away from Mumbai, since June 22.

A group of rebel Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLAs, led by minister Eknath Shinde, were taken to Surat from Mumbai on June 21 and then flown to Guwahati the next day.

Since then, several chartered flights carrying dissident MLAs have landed at LGBI Airport.

The Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat on Saturday issued summonses to 16 of the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde, seeking written replies by the evening of June 27 to the complaints seeking their disqualification.

The MLAs, after receiving the notices, have been huddling inside the hotel since Sunday morning, discussing various options to respond to the notices, sources said.