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Tribals in focus as Shah kicks off BJP’s 2024 campaign in Jharkhand
Chaibasa in West Singhbhum district is one of the five Lok Sabha seats, out of the total 14 in Jharkhand, which is reserved for the scheduled tribes (STs). The other four are Rajmahal, Dumka, Lohardaga and Khunti.
First tribal President of India Droupadi Murmu, welfare schemes for tribals, Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas on birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, alleged land grabbing of tribal land and tribal girls being allegedly being targeted through marriage by “intruders” (Bangladeshi migrants) figured prominently in union home minister Amit Shah’s speech on Saturday when he literally launched his party BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand for the 2024 general elections with Vijay Sankalp Maharally in Chaibasa.
Chaibasa in West Singhbhum district is one of the five Lok Sabha seats, out of the total 14 in Jharkhand, which is reserved for the scheduled tribes (STs). The other four are Rajmahal, Dumka, Lohardaga and Khunti.
Though the BJP swept the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 12 (including one by ally ASJU Party) of the 14 seats, it lost Chaibasa and Rajmahal, the two seats which have been traditional strongholds of Congress and the JMM, which currently rule the state in alliance.
While the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) won most of the non-tribal seats by big margins, it had won Khunti, Lohardaga and Dumka with a very thin margin.
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About six months later in 2019, the then BJP government led by Raghubar Das lost power to Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD alliance and was routed in the tribal belt. BJP won only two of the 28 assembly seats reserved for scheduled tribes (ST) in the House of 81, down from 15 ST seats it had won in 2014 assembly polls.
With both the elections in Jharkhand scheduled to be held in six months, Shah focussed on the tribal issues, besides targeting the Hemant Soren government, describing it as “corrupt and idle” that needs to be thrown out of power in the next polls.
“Intruders (Bangladesh migrants) are marrying tribal girls and grabbing their land. I warn Hemant Soren government today — stop this audacity by intruders or else people of Jharkhand won’t forgive you. The greed for vote bank can’t be bigger than welfare of the tribal community,” Shah said.
Terming the state government anti-tribal, he said Soren was working against the mandate for which he was voted to power by the people.
“The CM (Hemant Soren) of the state is a tribal but the government he is leading is anti-tribal. During his tenure, corruption has reached its peak and the middlemen and grabbers of tribal land are calling the shots,” Shah said.
The former BJP president said the Soren government has deceived the youth in the name of jobs while children were deceived in the name of education and the tribal community was deceived in the name of welfare schemes.
The union home minister also invoked the “1932 Khatiyan (records of land rights)” law recently legislated by the Hemant Soren government to decide state’s domicile and the employment policy.
“The last land survey settlement was done in Kolhan (which includes Chaibasa) in 1964. But they have fixed 1932 as cut-off. How would the youth of Kolhan get jobs? Why to create a divide? Instead create extra jobs and fill them. Hemant Soren should vacate the chair if he can’t provide jobs. We will provide them jobs,” Shah said.
While the JMM and Congress have been pitching the “1932 Khatiyan” law as a game changer in the state politics, tribal leaders, including sitting Chaibasa MP and JMM’s state working president Geeta Kora has opposed the move, demanding the last land survey settlement in different districts should be the way forward to determine the domicile.
The union home minister also listed achievements, welfare schemes and decisions taken by the Vajpayee and Modi governments at the centre for welfare of the tribal community.
“After 75 years, it was the Modi government that made, for the first time, a person from the tribal community, Droupadi Murmu, the country’s president. It was us who announced birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas. People would now remember him for posterity,” he said.
The rally was attended by the top BJP leaders from Jharkhand, including union minister Arjun Munda, state legislature party leader Babulal Marandi, former CM Raghubar Das, Jharkhand BJP in-charge Laxmikant Vajpayee and state unit president Deepak Prakash.
Besides addressing the rally, the union minister also chaired a meeting of the state BJP unit’s core committee at Chaibasa.
Meanwhile, the ruling JMM and Congress reacted sharply to the allegations made by the union home minister.
“They are making such wild allegations as they know who actually enjoys support of the state electorate. The tribal community is fully aware of designs and therefore gave an adequate reply in 2019 elections,” said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.
Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said the home minister himself admitted that a conspiracy was being hatched to topple the state government. “Today, BJP itself got exposed. Amit Shah said Babulal Marandi told him to change the government, but he declined. It establishes what we have been saying that since they can’t defeat us politically, they were hatching a conspiracy to topple our government,” he said.
