Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde and 48 other dissident lawmakers loyal to him left Guwahati on Wednesday evening, the run-up to their departure marked by a donation of Rs 51 lakh towards flood relief.

Sources said the MLAs and those accompanying them were flying to Goa, another BJP-ruled state, in a chartered flight that left at 6.56pm so they could reach Mumbai in time for Thursday’s trust vote.

Team Shinde, which includes rebel Shiv Sena and Independent MLAs, their associates and family members, checked out of the Radisson Blu hotel for the airport after 4pm, a week after the first batch of rebels arrived on the morning of June 22 from Surat in BJP-ruled Gujarat.

Four air-conditioned luxury buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation ferried them to the airport, 15km away, under heavy security cover.

Assam parliamentary affairs minister Pijush Hazarika, housing and urban affairs minister Ashok Singhal, BJP MP Pallab Lochan Das and MLAs Diganta Kalita and Sushanta Borgohain accompanied the Maharashtra lawmakers to the airport.

Guwahati police commissioner Harmeet Singh, joint commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta and other senior officers were also present at the airport. Hundreds of policemen had been deployed at the airport since morning.

A couple of hours earlier, after offering prayers at the Kamakhya temple with his loyalists, Shinde had said they were a group of 49 MLAs.

“The majority are with us. The people are with us. There is law in this country. There is a Constitution in this country. There is democracy,” Shinde said.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier tweeted that the visiting Shiv Sena MLAs had donated Rs 51 lakh to the chief minister’s relief fund.

The BJP-led government in Assam had faced a lot of criticism for “hosting” the rebel MLAs at a time when the state was battling one of its worst floods. Flood and landslides have claimed 151 lives till Wednesday.