With hotel rooms costing Rs 56 lakh to chartering planes for Rs 50 lakh, it appears that Eknath Shinde is sparing no expense in keeping his supporters comfortable, as the Maharashtra political crisis unfolds
Breakaway Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde with his supporters at Radisson Blu Hotel, Guwahati. PTI
The Maharashtra political crisis has spanned across three states — Maharashtra, Gujarat and Assam — with MLAs being jetted off and housed at various hotels over the past few days.
It has been a costly affair for Eknath Shinde to get the MLAs supporting him out of Maharashtra to Guwahati in an attempt to break away from the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition. As of today, Shinde, who officially has the support of 37 MLAs, but claims that more will join, are staying at the Radisson Blu luxury hotel located on National Highway 37 on the outskirts of Assam’s capital.
Here’s a closer look at the expenses that has gone into the crisis — from private jets to hotel rooms to luxury buses.
From Maharashtra to Gujarat
The entire drama began on Tuesday when Eknath Shinde became ‘unavailable’ and along with his breakaway group travelled to Surat in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat.
As per reports, Shinde had chartered a private SpiceJet aircraft to take his MLAs to Gujarat.
In Surat, the MLAs were put up at the Le Meridien Hotel — where the cost of rooms start at Rs 2,300 per night.
Jetting off to Guwahati
A few hours in Surat, and the Eknath Shinde camp then made their way in the wee hours of Wednesday to Guwahati, Assam.
The MLAs owing their allegiance to Shinde were flown to Guwahati in a chartered flight — no cheap affair.
A look at data on chartered flights show that the cost of an Embraer ERJ-135LR aircraft, which can carry over 30 people, to be over Rs 50 lakh for a Surat to Guwahati journey. Two additional smaller business jets have flown to Guwahati since the political crisis began in Maharashtra.
According to industry insiders, the cost of hiring smaller aircraft is around Rs 35 lakh.
After landing in Guwahati, the MLAs were then taken to the five-star Radisson Blu hotel, which has a total of 196 hotel rooms.
Sources told NDTV that the Eknath Shinde camp now has booked 70 rooms at the facility for a period of seven days. This means that the cost of rooms alone at the hotel is approximately Rs 56 lakh.
In addition, an estimated Rs 8 lakh is being spent on food and other services daily, taking the total seven-day cost to Rs 1.12 crore.
NDTV also reported that the Radisson Blu isn’t taking any more bookings and has also shut down its banquet hall as well as its restaurant to outsiders.
In a show of strength, Shinde on Thursday posted pictures and videos with 41 MLAs from the hotel, spelling more trouble for Chief Minister and Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray. The pictures show the MLAs gathered in a hall for a photoshoot, raising slogans for Shiv Sena, Balasaheb Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, without mentioning Uddhav Thackeray.
While we don’t know what the future will bring, we can definitely say that this crisis has been an expensive affair and we wonder who has shouldered the costs of this entire situation.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.