NDA’s acid test of unity today in Jharkhand polls

Tomorrow, BJP’s Deodas Apte will take on JMM’s Muktinath Upadhya. To win in 82-member House, 43 votes are needed. As many as 46 MLAs support the Marandi government — 33 of BJP, 5 Samata Party, 3 Janata Dal, 2 United Goa Democratic Party, 2 Independent, and 1 nominated.

Some MLAs, however, are said to be against Apte. Scared that Apte’s loss could upset his government, Marandi and his opponent, BJP’s Karia Munda, have joined hands and urged MLAs to vote for Apte.

The Samata Party threw a spanner in the works when it postponed till tomorrow its decision on whom to support. After a party meeting tonight, Samata Legislature Party leader Ramchandra Kesri said the five ministers could not finalise the party’s stand. “There will be another meeting at 10 am tomorrow at my residence,” he said.

Upadhya, however, is not sitting idle. And neither is Soren. On Saturday afternoon, Upadhya told reporters the entire 36-strong Opposition — 12 of JMM, 11 Congress, 9 RJD, 2 CPI, 1 CPI-ML, and 1 MCC — will vote for him. At Bokaro railway station, Soren welcomed Nitish Kumar and sought his party’s support for Upadhya. Soren refused to divulge Kumar’s response.

RJD Legislature Party leader Girinath Singh said: ‘‘We have decided to vote for the JMM candidate. We have got a directive from party chief Laloo Prasad Yadav.’’

Congress too has sent its man, general-secretary Oscar Fernandes, to plump up support for Upadhya.