A nail-biting finish on the cards

Jharkhand trust vote today

Although new Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda got his troops ready to face battle in the Jharkhand Assembly tomorrow, top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders confessed privately they were not at all sure how long the government was going to last.

"We have MLAs who have been in our party for 30 years and have served several terms in the undevided Bihar Assembly. They are sitting like guards, while johnny come latelies with one term in the Assembly have become ministers because of the exigencies of the situation. We do not know how long this can be sustained," a top BJP leader from Bihar said today.

In Ranchi, Munda was busy getting all his MLAs together while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) hurtled towards their second confrontation since the Assembly was constituted a week ago, over the appointment of the Speaker.

NDA nominee Inder Singh Namdhari has a narrow one-vote advantage over his UPA rival Annapoorna Devi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Both leaders filed their nominations today, drawing the battle lines. Although Namdhari pleaded for a consensus on the appointment of the Speaker to keep the chair above acrimony, this was rejected by leaders.

"We are in the battlefield now. We will fight it out," convener of the UPA coordination committee Stephen Marandi told reporters in Ranchi Annapoorna Devi filed her nomination for the Speaker's post.

Asserting that there was no going back on Annapoorna Devi's nomination, RJD leader and former parliamentary affairs minister Girinath Singh expressed confidence that the nominee, who is from his party, would be elected speaker.

When pointed out that Namdhari had appealed to the MLAs to keep the Speaker's chair above of controversy, Marandi said: "There is already a controversy over how the events unfolded over the past fortnight".

This is not the only problem Munda is facing. With indications pointing to NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh's absence from the Assembly owing to his illness, Arjun Munda's trust vote tomorrow is expected to witness a nail-biting finish.

The numbers are only too clear. The NDA, comprising the BJP (30 MLAs) and the JD U (six), has the support of five independent legislators "" all ministers in the Arjun Munda ministry""taking the total to 41 in the 81-member House.

The UPA, on the other hand, has 39 on its side "" JMM (17), Congress (nine), RJD (seven), UGDP (two), Forward Bloc (two), CPI (ML-Liberation-one) and independent MLA Stephen Marandi.

Though the NDA has been reduced to 40 after its MLA Karia Munda was sworn-in as pro-tem, the ruling dispensation has the luxury of his vote in the event of a tie.

This can happen only when the NCP MLA votes in favour of the UPA nominee. Singh has not yet cleared his stand vis-a-vis supporting the NDA.

He was sworn-in as a minister in the UPA ministry before Shibu Soren had to quit last week . Singh could not take oath as an MLA as he is in a hospital here following heart ailment.