Divulging the behind-the-scenes activities that went on before the formation of the new government, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said he used to leave the hotel where he was camping in Guwahati at midnight when all MLAs were asleep and used to return early morning, PTI reported.
The first signs of a looming political crisis in Maharashtra came when Shinde and a group of Shiv Sena MLAs left Mumbai on the night of June 20 and moved to a hotel in Gujarat's Surat. The rebel MLAs then moved to Guwahati on a chartered flight.
Referring to how he sneaked out of Mumbai, Shinde said there was nakabandi (security blockade) by the police. "I know how to locate mobile phone towers and track a person. I also know how to evade nakabandi," PTI quoted Shinde as saying.
"The true kalakar (artist) of this government is Devendra Fadnavis," Shinde said.
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Shinde, who took oath as the chief minister with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy last week, said the Legislative Council polls came as the last trigger for him to make the big move that eventually resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
"On the day of the (results of) the legislative council elections (June 20) and the way I was treated....I had decided that there will be no turning back," Shinde told the Legislative Assembly after winning the trust vote.
In the council polls, the BJP had won all the five seats it contested, while Congress's Chandrakant Handore lost. Days earlier, Shiv Sena's second nominee had lost to BJP's third candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra.