GUWAHATI: The five-star hotel in Guwahati where the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs are holed up has turned into a virtual fortress with a posse of policemen guarding it round-the-clock. The “Laxman rekha” for media persons, who have come from different states including Maharashtra, has been drawn at the hotel’s entrance, some 150-200 metres away. Lunch is served to them by the hotel. Nobody knows the sponsor.
Only a select few, including BJP MPs, ministers and MLAs, have access to the hotel. It is not entertaining fresh bookings. Seventy rooms were booked for the MLAs for seven days. The tariff for seven days, sources said, is `56 lakh. The total cost, including food, was estimated to be `1.12 crore.
Rebel leader Eknath Shinde, perhaps feeling bored after staying put at a hotel since Wednesday, went out on an outing to an undisclosed location in the city on Friday. The sudden departure of the Sena leader triggered speculations that he was Maharashtra-bound but he returned two and half hours later. A Sena MLA told journalists outside the hotel that Shinde had gone out to offer his prayers at the Kamakhya temple. The same, however, could not be confirmed.
The ruling BJP ministers, MLAs, leaders, as well as the state machinery, are maintaining a stony silence. “Things are being monitored at the highest level from Delhi,” a source from the RSS said. A Sena worker, believed to be loyal to Thackeray, and several protesting Assam Congress leaders were picked up by the police from outside the hotel on Friday.