The ruling United Progressive Alliance on Wednesday recommended the nomination of an Anglo-Indian community member to the Jharkhand assembly.

A cabinet meeting selected Alfred George De Rozario for the nomination.

The move would bolster the alliance's chances of winning the trust vote, which is to be held on March 11.

The Jharkhand assembly has 81 elected members and one nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community, who has the right to vote.

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Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi, taking a question posed to Chief Minister Shibu Soren on the significance of the nomination ahead of the confidence vote, said the decision had to be taken following 'pressure' from the community.

"There were many applications for nomination from the Anglo-Indian community," he said. Many wanted to know why the community should not be represented in the assembly and have voting right, Marandi said.

"We had no option but to consider their demand," he added.

Both Soren and Marandi were speaking to the media soon after the third cabinet meeting of the UPA since it came to power on March 2.

Marandi recalled how the Nitish Kumar government in 2000 nominated a member from the Anglo-Indian community before the trust vote and how in 1996 two nominated candidates in the Lok Sabha cast their votes during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime.

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Most Anglo-Indian families in Jharkhand live at Mccluskieganj, which is a tourist attraction, located about 60 km from Ranchi.

Rozario was a nominated member of the undivided Bihar assembly from 1995 to 2000.