50 rebel MLAs pray at Kamakhya temple with BJP ministers

Around 50 dissident Maharashtra MLAs from Shiv Sena and Independent MLAs, led by Eknath Shinde, on Wednesday left the Radisson Blu hotel in Guwahati where they had been kept for the last few days under massive security, and prayed at Kamakhya temple.

A bus from Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) took all the MLAs, accompanied by Assam Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika, to Kamakhya temple atop Neelachal hill on the bank of Brahmaputra.

The MLAs made the V-sign at newspersons who were waiting for them outside the hotel.

From the temple, the dissident will return to the hotel, sources said.

They are slated to travel to the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI), from where they will fly to Goa in a chartered flight later on Wednesday evening.

However, sources said plans remain fluid and may depend on fresh court judgments.

Along with Hazarika, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Assam Pallab Lochan Das and MLA Diganta Kalita accompanied the rebel legislators from the western state.

The trip to Kamakhya was under huge police bandobost, with hundreds of policemen led by top officials turning the temple into a veritable fortress where other devotees were not allowed for the duration of the MLAs visit.

Earlier in the morning, Shinde separately visited Kamakhya temple to seek the goddess's blessings.

Shinde told reporters outside the temple that he will return to Mumbai on Thursday to 'complete the formalities', implying he would participate in moves to form a new government.

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, along with some Independents have been camping in Guwahati, around 2,700 km away from Mumbai, since June 22.