Shinde, rebel MLAs paid Guwahati hotel bills before leaving

Guwahati: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who had camped at a Guwahati luxury hotel for eight days cleared their bills before they checked out on Wednesday, a hotel official confirmed on Friday.

Though the hotel officials are tight-lipped on the total bill, sources said Rs68-70 lakh were paid for their stay in the upscale Radisson Blu hotel located at Gotanagar near Jalukbari. A total of 70 rooms in different floors of the hotel were booked for the Maharashtra legislators and their associates. The hotel had closed its restaurants, banquets and other facilities for the non-resident guests from June 22 to June 29, the period of their stay. “The Maharashtra MLAs stayed in the hotel as normal guests. They cleared the bills before leaving. There is no money pending,” a senior official of the hotel said, on condition of anonymity. 

The official, however, declined to share the amount billed but said the lawmakers had stayed “in a mix of superior and deluxe category rooms”. According to the Radisson Blu’s website, the tariffs of different types of rooms in its Guwahati property are dynamic and vary almost every day. Sources said that usually the rent for superior rooms is around Rs7,500 and Rs8,500 for deluxe ones. After discounts and taxes the figure is estimated to be around Rs68 lakh. With the Goods & Services Tax (GST), the amount payable for the two types of rooms is around Rs7,280 and Rs8,400 per person for a night. There are a few superior rooms and around 55 deluxe rooms in the hotel.

The total food bill is believed to be around Rs22 lakh for the rebel MLAs. Asked if the guests availed any other paid services, the hotel official said, “They used only facilities which are available as complimentary in the room rent.”