Friday, March 11 2005 09:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: The nine-day old Shibu Soren Government in Jharkhand will face the crucial trial of strength in the Assembly today (Mar 11, 2005), with both the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and rival National Democratic Alliance (NDA) expressing confidence of sailing through the floor test in the 81-member House.

The trial of strength was preponed by four days by a directive of the Supreme Court.

While the NDA has paraded all its 41 MLAs, including five Independents before Governor Syed Sibtey Razi and President A P J Abdul Kalam, Soren has claimed the support of 42 MLAs in the House, alleging that the NDA had "illegally" confined two of his supporting Independent MLAs Enos Ekka and Chandra Prakash Choudhary.

All the 41 NDA MLAs took the oath yesterday (Mar 10, 2005) while only 36 belonging to the UPA took the oath, with three of its MLAs - Aparna Sengupta and Bhanu Pratap Sahi 'Dehati' (both Forward Bloc) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member and Minister in the Soren Government Kamlesh Kumar Singh, remaining absent.

Following the swearing-in of the MLAs yesterday, pro-tem Speaker Pradip Kumar Balamuchu served a notice to Ekka, asking him to show cause as to why he should not be disqualified as a member of the House since he was supporting the NDA against the directive of his Jharkhand party.

Soren later told newsmen that he had been assured by the Forward Bloc leadership that its two MLAs would support the UPA in the vote of confidence. The NCP has also said that its lone MLA Kamlesh Singh would back the UPA.

Last night, NDA legislature party leader and former Chief Minister Arjun Munda said that he was "confident of wining with the support of all the 41 members in the alliance."