Hemant Soren, right, submitting his resignation to Governor Syed Ahmed (PTI photo)
Caretaker Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren today accused the BJP of crushing tribal leadership by not allowing them to grow from the very first day of the creation of Jharkhand.
"It is not today. From the very first day, the Bharatiya Janata Party created situations in a planned way to crush tribal leadership," Mr Soren said while reacting to the BJP selecting Raghubar Das as the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand.
"It has been in their mind to run this state on its own terms. What I feel is, first they promoted tribal leadership, did not allow them to grow, made them unsuccessful before spreading misinformation that tribal leadership can't rule," Mr Soren told PTI.
"It did not give them an opportunity to grow. They did not allow Babulal Marandi (former BJP leader) and Arjun Munda (BJP) to grow as tribal leaders," he said.
Mr Soren reminded how the BJP walked out of the Shibu Soren-led government in 2009 on the "pretext" of his father voting alongside the Manmohan Singh-led UPA coalition on nuclear deal.
"They could have said it before the alliance (between JMM/BJP to rule Jharkhand in 2009) as they knew the alliance of JMM with the UPA at the Centre then. But what led them to pull down the government even after that, there was no impact on the voting (in Lok Sabha)?" he added.
"So, from time to time, there have been attempts to demoralise tribal leadership. But I showed it in 14 months," Mr Soren said claiming what he as a tribal achieved in 14 months rule, BJP had "failed" even after ruling the state for maximum years.
"Today, you can see a big question mark. Tribal leaders are finding themselves alienated," he said apparently referring to murmurs in some circles following the BJP choosing Raghubar Das as its leader to take over the reins of Jharkhand.
"In a way, it can be said that BJP fought elections in Jharkhand under the leadership of Modiji and not under the state leadership," Mr Soren said.
"I would like to tell the new government that mineral-rich Jharkhand is different from other states. It is a tribal and backward region forcing them to migrate to several states, including Assam. And one can see the atrocities they are facing there, not only from the extremists but also from the police," he said.