'Bangladeshi infiltrators will be thrown out': Rajnath Singh's vow at Jharkhand poll rally

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also slammed JMM's Hemant Soren over the unceremonious exit of Champai Soren. (File photo: PTI)

Union Defence Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajnath Singh on Thursday claimed that illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators had entered Jharkhand and vowed to identify and “throw out” each one of them once his party forms the government in the state.

“Tell me, have Bangladeshi infiltrators entered here or not? What do you want? Do you want them to leave or not? I am promising you today that once our government is formed here (in Jharkhand), all illegal infiltrators will be identified and thrown out,” Singh said addressing a rally in Dhanbad district of the state.

Singh’s visit to the state came months ahead of the Assembly elections due in Jharkhand later this year. The term of the Jharkhand Assembly expires on January 5 next year.

Singh also invoked the unceremonious exit of former Chief Minister Champai Soren from the JMM. Soren, who was appointed as the CM after Hemant’s arrest in a money-laundering case, was asked to step down following the latter’s release on bail. He eventually quit the party and joined the BJP.

"What crime did former CM Champai Soren commit that he was removed from the post of Chief Minister? Only that he was poor... He had no money, no wealth... He is an honest leader. Just like they threw Champai Soren out, the people of Jharkhand should take a pledge that we will throw the JMM government out of here. They have no right to remain in power in Jharkhand," Singh said.

The alleged presence of illegal immigrants in Jharkhand has assumed political importance in the state with the BJP targeting the Hemant Soren-led government of turning a blind eye to the demographic change happening in the state, particularly in the tribal region of Santhal Pargana.

The issue was first raised by Assam Chief Minister and BJP’s Jharkhand co in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma in August this year when he claimed that the state government was “silent” on the issue of infiltration to “pursue its vote-bank politics”.

“The demography of Jharkhand is changing fast after Assam, West Bengal and Tripura, but the coalition government in Jharkhand is silent on the issue for the sake of appeasement,” Sarma said while addressing BJP workers in the state on August 2.

Sarma had claimed that Bangladeshi infiltration was at its peak in the Santhal Pargana region and that the infiltrators were “grabbing land” of adivasis and Dalits and “committing atrocities on them". “The number of Bangladeshi infiltrators has gone up from 20% to 48% in 20 Assembly segments of the state,” he said

The Soren government, however, has denied the allegations of any demographic change in Jharkhand. “They talk about demographic change and Bangladeshi intruders. I would like to tell them to go and see the data from the central government and see in which district and in which state it has changed,” Soren said, dismissing the charges.

“Go and see what is the data in Bengal. Then see the data of various districts in Jharkhand. You would find that there is no change in the demography here," he added.