Bhubaneswar, Mar 8 : Biju Janata Dal chief and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday claimed support of 76 MLAs.

Orissa Governor M. C. Bhandare has asked Patnaik to seek a vote of confidence in a special assembly session on March 11.

"There will be a vote of confidence in the state assembly on March 11 during a special session," Patnaik told reporters here.

According to the party sources, 59 BJD MLA accompanied the Chief Minister to the Rajbhavan.

New Delhi, Mar 8 : The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Pa

Bhubaneswar, Mar 8 : A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is working to garner support of fringe parties and independent candidates to save its government.

The BJD has 61 MLA in the 147 members Orissa Assembly.

It now requires 13 more MLA to achieve the magic figure of 74 to remain in power.

The party was close to muster the support of 14 more MLAs from JMM, CPI and CPI-M.

The BJP, which had 32 members in the assembly, suffered a setback as two of its MLAs resigned from the party last week.

Bhubaneswar, Mar 6 : India on Friday inched closer towards its endeavour to put in place its own home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence System as it successfully carried out the third Interceptor test of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island in Orissa.

The mission control room burst into raptures as the radar display indicated the interception and destruction of the decoy enemy missile by the interceptor. Friday''s test achieved all the mission objectives.

The battle for management control of Orissa Sponge Iron and Steel (OSIL) has intensified after Bhushan Energy, part of the Neeraj Singhal promoted Bhushan Steel group, acquired 4.09% stake from the open market at Rs 342.85 per share on March 3 and a further 0.65% the following day at Rs 359.95 per share.

The open market acquisitions push up the group's stake in OSIL from 14.85% to 19.95%.

Bhushan Steel also holds 35 lakh warrants of OSIL, which when converted will take its share in the company to 26.6%.