Maharashtra chief minister-designate Sushilkumar Shinde will seek a trust vote in the state assembly on January 22.

"A special session of the state assembly has been convened at 1300 IST on January 22," senior Congress leader Rohidas Patil, who handled the parliamentary affairs portfolio in the Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry, told PTI in Mumbai on Friday.

Shinde, who was elected leader of the ruling Democratic Front coalition earlier in the day, has submitted a list of 148 MLAs supporting him in the 289-member lower house to Governor Mohammed Fazal.

Meanwhile, along with Shinde and the NCP's Chhagan Bhujbal, others expected to take oath on Saturday include six independents, two from the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and one member each from the Janata Dal (Secular) and RPI, DF sources said.

Besides Bhujbal, other NCP members likely to take oath include Padamsinh Patil, Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil and Madhukar Pichad, sources added.

Shinde has also met leaders of the Peasants' and Workers Party (PWP), an estranged ally of the ruling coalition which has maintained that it will remain 'neutral' in the state assembly.

The PWP, with five members in the 289-member lower house, had in June 2002 withdrawn support to the DF government, triggering a political crisis.

An irked PWP had pulled out of the ruling coalition after the NCP's Sunil Tatkare was inducted into the ministry. The PWP accuses Tatkare of engineering the defeat of their nominee in the election for the chairpersonship of the Raigad Zilla Parishad.

Raigad is a traditional bastion of the PWP.

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