Ahead of the trust vote in Parliament, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday issued a whip to its eight members to vote against the United Progressive Alliance government.

SAD general secretary and party's parliamentary board chairman Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said the party issued the whip to avoid any cross-voting by Akali MPs.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Punjab Cabinet Minister Manoranjan Kalia said, "I have taken up the issue with the chief minister and accordingly he issued instructions to Dhindsa (to issue the whip) on the issue."

Kalia said he has already informed former senior BJP leader L K Advani about the development. In the absence of a whip, there was speculation about cross-voting by the Akali MPs as several Sikh organisations had appealed to them to support India's first Sikh prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.