Assam Congress chief asks Eknath Shinde to leave, says ‘your presence defaming flood-hit State’

Bhupen Bora asked the rebel Sena leader to leave immediately, saying that the MLAs are getting ‘royal hospitality’ amid floods in Assam 

The Assam unit of the Congress on June 24 staged demonstrations near a luxury hotel where rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and other Maharashtra MLAs accompanying him are staying demanding that they leave the State as it is reeling under a devastating flood.

Assam Congress chief Bhupen Bora also wrote a letter to Mr. Shinde telling him that their presence at such a critical juncture has "defamed" the State.

Congress leaders were not allowed to enter the hotel and a police official deployed there was requested to hand over the letter to the Sena leader.

Slogan-shouting party workers demonstrated near the hotel for some time.

The Shiv Sena-led coalition government in Maharashtra, of which the Congress is a part, is facing a crisis following the dissidence of a section of its MLAs led by Mr. Shinde.

Assam is a land where people give a lot of respect to ethics and values but "your presence in Guwahati with the MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena from Maharashtra, who have been kept in a hotel for alleged horse-trading to topple the elected Maharashtra government and the continued media coverage of the same, has not gone down well with the people," the Assam Congress chief said in the letter to Mr. Shinde.

"Assam has been defamed by your presence," he said in the letter.