A fresh controversy broke out on Saturday in Jharkhand with assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari convening the House on March 17 for a floor test for the BJP-led government, but Chief Minister Babulal Marandi questioned his right to do so.

The latter insisted that his government would face a vote a confidence on March 27, as decided by the state cabinet.

Meanwhile, in an apparent move to defuse the political crisis, the BJP is weighing the options of sending Union Minister Karia Munda as an alternative to Marandi.

According to highly placed BJP sources in Delhi, the issue figured at a meeting of NDA leaders on Friday night in which Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani was present.

The sources said the BJP was not averse to sending Munda to Ranchi if there was a consensus around his name.

On Saturday, the rival sides in Jharkhand were engaged in a battle of one-upmanship with Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari firing the first salvo by convening the House on March 17 so that Marandi could prove his majority.

"I got a communiqué from Governor Rama Jois on Friday night asking me to see that the budget is passed by March 31. So I have decided to reconvene the assembly on March 17," Namdhari told reporters in Ranchi brushing aside questions whether he was competent to convene the House.

Namdhari had adjourned the House sine die on Thursday after announcing that the government had lost a crucial financial vote on a cut motion.

Marandi, on the other hand, insisted that it was for the government to decide on summoning the House.

The chief minister said he would meet the governor and explain that since the House was adjourned sine die it was the right of the cabinet to advise him on a new date for the session.

He pointed out that the House was originally scheduled to have a week-long holiday from March 14 on account of Holi festival.

Governor Rama Jois had on Friday night issued a communiqué rejecting the demand of opposition MLAs, who had elected Namdhari as their leader, to be given a chance to form an alternative government on the ground that the Marandi-led coalition ministry had lost a financial vote on a cut motion.

At a cabinet meeting convened to discuss the response to the governor's communiqué, the cabinet decided that a two-day session would be convened from March 27.

The government would seek a vote of confidence and also secure the members' approval for the budget as per the governor's directions at that time, cabinet secretary Aditya Swaroop told reporters after the meeting.