Maharashtra political crisis highlights: A group of rebel Maharashtra MLAs, led by dissident Shiv Sena dissident leader Eknath Shinde, arrived in Guwahati on Wednesday morning and were taken to a luxury hotel on the outskirts of the city amid tight security. The MLAs were received at the airport by BJP MPs Pallab Lochan Das and Sushanta Borgohain Shinde, who initially refused to talk to mediapersons waiting outside the airport. Shinde claims the support of 40 MLAs -- 33 Shiv Sena and seven independents, while the picture shared by the Shinde camp has only 35 MLAs. The political crisis in the state began a day after the MLC elections when some MVA MLAs cross-voted in the favour of BJP. The MLAs arrived in Guwahati from Surat and were taken to the hotel in three buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation. Tight security has been imposed with a huge posse of police personnel posted in and around the hotel. The MLAs were taken to Surat from Mumbai on Tuesday and the decision to shift them to Guwahati was taken on security grounds, according to a BJP source. The Shiv Sena, which heads the MVA government, has 55 MLAs, followed by allies NCP (53) and the Congress (44) in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly where the current simple majority mark is 144. The Shiv Sena had walked out of a pre-poll alliance with the BJP after the 2019 assembly elections to form the government with Sharad Pawar's NCP and the Congress following differences with the BJP on the chief minister's post. There was unease in a section of the Shiv Sena over the growing stature of Aditya Thackeray, Uddhav's son and minister, in party affairs.

Presidential poll: Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress's (TMC) vice-president Yashwant Sinha had said the time has come to step aside from the party "to work for greater opposition unity". Three leaders -- Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Gopal Krishna Gandhi -- had reportedly refused to contest the presidential polls.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted that Gandhi — who was scheduled to appear before the ED on June 23 — has been ‘strictly advised rest at home following her hospitalisation on account of COVID-19 and lung infection.’

It's all happening in Maharashtra. In a rapidly-developing story, the fault lines in the ruling MVA alliance, comprising the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, are cracking open as party leaders and MLAs rebel following some steep setbacks. Here’s the unfolding political potboiler so far and what led to this turn of events-