RANCHI: Union home minister Amit Shah accused chief minister Hemant Soren’s coalition govt of patronising illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Jharkhand for vote-bank politics, while pledging that the BJP would bring a law to prevent the transfer of land to all infiltrators who marry off tribal girls.
“The entire tribal community is against the infiltrators and their atrocities,” he said and promised that BJP, if elected, would reclaim all such land grabbed by illegal immigrants.
Earlier, while unveiling BJP’s manifesto for Jharkhand on Nov 3, Home minister Shah had accused illegal Bangladeshi immigrants of grabbing tribal land “by marrying tribal girls through false pretensions”. He had promised that BJP govt “will identify and deport each infiltrator and take back the land they’d usurped from the tribal people”.
On the final day of campaigning for the first phase of Jharkhand assembly elections on Nov 13, the Union Home minister addressed two rallies — one at Tamar in Ranchi district and another in Seraikela, both reserved for STs.
Shah alleged that the JMM-Cong-RJD alliance is against tribal people as it had unceremoniously removed former chief minister Champai Soren for speaking out against govt policies.
“Hemant Soren’s party JMM removed Champai from the CM’s post because he spoke about the illegal infiltration of the Bangladeshis in the state. JMM humiliated Champai by dethroning him for telling the truth. But BJP honours him for pointing out the facts,” the union home minister said.
Champai is seeking to retain the Seraikela seat for the seventh time, now as a BJP candidate. In Tamar, BJP ally JD(U)’s Raja Peter, who defeated Shibu Soren in 2008, is the NDA nominee. At both rallies, Shah also levelled corruption charges against the coalition govt, citing how central agencies confiscated piles of money from INDIA bloc functionaries.
