The National Democratic Alliance will win the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Monday.

Addressing MPs belonging to the NDA and its supporting parties in the Central Hall of Parliament, he said the coalition "will fight out the challenge even though it is assured of victory".

• The No-confidence Motion: The Complete Coverage
  

The debate on the motion will begin on Monday in the Lok Sabha and Vajpayee will intervene in the discussion before it is put to vote on Tuesday. Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi will reply to the discussion on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman V K Malhotra said.

Vajpayee said, "I am proud of the unity of the NDA and its supporting parties. We are all together and the world cannot believe that so many parties could come together."

The prime minister, however, said he did not know why the opposition had moved the motion and that too at so late a stage. "We have been waiting for a long time for the opposition to challenge the government."

Vajpayee has invited all NDA partners and supporters for dinner on Tuesday after the "defeat" of the motion, Malhotra said.

Asked whether the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and National Conference will go with the NDA, Malhotra said, "We don't know. Normally they do not associate themselves with the Congress. It is for them to decide."

Malhotra said while about 300 MPs belonging to the NDA and supporting parties were present at the meeting, some other members, who were away from the capital, were expected to reach soon.

The NDA and its allies have issued three-line whips to all their members to ensure their presence in the debate and during voting.

While Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani will be among the first speakers from the ruling coalition, others who will be fielded include Defence Minister George Fernandes, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie, Textile Minister Shahnawaz Hussain and Malhotra.

Fernandes will take on the opposition "head on" and dispel all the "lies" propagated by it in the last one-and-a-half years since he returned to the Union Cabinet, Malhotra said.

The defence minister "will clear all the lies and remove the misrepresentation of the facts", he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress said it had no objection to Fernandes speaking on the motion.

"Fernandes's boycott will continue. But today it is a different matter in the wake of a no-confidence motion moved by Gandhi against Vajpayee's government. Any member of the House is free to speak on the motion," party spokesperson Pawan Kumar Bansal said.

"He is free to speak on the motion as a Private member, leader of a party or even on behalf of the government", he said, adding, "we will listen to him on the motion."