Maharashtra crisis: Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde meets MLA Nitin Deshmukh at Surat hospital

Maharashtra minister Eknath Shinde, who is camping in a hotel in Gujarat's Surat city along with other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, met party legislator Nitin Deshmukh at the civil hospital here on Tuesday night, sources said.

Deshmukh was rushed to the civil hospital from the hotel on Monday night itself after his health deteriorated, they said, but did not elaborate on the nature of his ailment that led to the hospitalization. The Shiv Sena MLA from Balapur in Akola district of Maharashtra was among 10-odd legislators who came to Surat from Mumbai on Monday night along with Shinde and checked into the luxury hotel.

The sources said Shinde came out of the hotel on Tuesday night and went straight to the hospital to meet Deshmukh following which the MLA was discharged. In Mumbai, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut alleged Deshmukh was among two MLAs who were beaten up and that he has suffered a heart attack.


Notably, Deshmukh's wife Pranjali Deshmukh has filed a complaint at the Civil Lines police station in Akola claiming her husband has gone "missing" and was not reachable since Monday night. Shinde (58), a multiple-time MLA from Thane district near Mumbai and a Cabinet minister, has rebelled against the Shiv Sena leadership, plunging the two-and-a-half-year old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government into a crisis.