Madhu Koda Government to face no-confidence motion today

The Madhu Koda Government in Jharkhand will face a no-confidence motion to be moved by opposition parties in the State Assembly here this afternoon.

Ranchi, Dec 18 : The Madhu Koda Government in Jharkhand will face a no-confidence motion to be moved by opposition parties in the State Assembly here this afternoon.

Opposition leader Arjun Munda will move the motion. Earlier, Munda had said that the no-confidence motion moved by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would end misrule in the state.

Speaker Alamgir Alam has informed the House of the proposed motion by Munda and four others.

For the first time, the UPA-backed Madhu Koda Government will face a no-confidence motion.

The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have announced that they are going to support the Chief Minister during the motion.

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janta Dal-United (JD-U) and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) are supporting the motion.

In the 81 member House, the UPA has 42 members, while the opposition NDA has 35 members, including 29 of the BJP, five of the JD-U and one of the AJSU.

The four others are Forward Bloc - 1, CPI-ML (L) - 1, Independent - 1, and nominated member - 1.

Koda, an independent, had formed the government by toppling Munda government in September 2006.

About half a dozen people were injured on Monday as police baton charged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists here.

BJP activists, led by Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, squatted outside the state assembly premises, raising slogans against the Madhu Koda-led Government in Jharkhand.

"A stone fell on us from somewhere and after that police started pelting stones on us and then obviously our people retaliated. My security personnel covered me and took me to a safe destination. We thought it was over but then a riot police vehicle came and policemen wielding batons came out of it and beat our party workers ruthlessly," Sinha said.

He condemned the incident saying the action was unwarranted.

BJP state unit general secretary, Dineshanand Goswami accused the police of using batons and throwing stones on the party activists and claimed that 26 BJP activists suffered injuries.

The police, however, denied hurling stones.

The BJP's youth wing staged the protest to demand employment and other development issues.

ANI