JHARGRAM: Prime Minister of Jharkhand and Acting Chairman of JMM Hemant Soren a demonstration took place here Thursday in West Bengal’s Jhargram district, which is linked to the polls, demanding the establishment of an autonomous council for the tribal-dominated western part of the state.
Prime Minister of West Bengal Mamata banerjee She said she was “hurt” that Soren came to Jhargram for political purposes and advised him to take care of his own state.
Sources from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) said that the party is willing to fight in several seats of the Elections to the West Bengal Assembly Scheduled for April-May this year and the public meeting that was well attended on Thursday is his show of force in the Jangal Mahal region.
Resolving an old demand by the tribal peoples of the area to establish an autonomous council for the western part of the state, Soren said: “The JMM will fight for the interests of the Adivasi people of West Bengal.”
The JMM leader also attacked the BJP-led government in the Center claiming that it has done nothing for the tribal population.
The BJP is also selling the country’s assets, he said.
The saffron party had taken Jhargram’s seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“An Autonomous Paschimanchal Council should be formed under the Fifth Program of the Constitution. We are confident that the people here will actively fight to get what is owed to them,” he said at the meeting held in the Jamda area of Jhargram.
The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of the Programmed Areas, as well as the Programmed Tribes that reside in any state other than certain states of the Northeast region.
Following the demand for an autonomous council, the Left Front government established Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad in 2000 for the development of 74 blocks in five districts of the western part of the state. A Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs Department was also created in July 2006.
The JMM has some influence in at least three electoral districts in Jangal Mahal, but had never won any state seats.
Reacting to Soren’s lawsuit, Mamata Banerjee, who is also the supreme of the Trinamool Congress, said: “I felt hurt. I had gone to Hemant Soren’s inauguration as prime minister (in 2019) and was very supportive of him.”
Banerjee said that if the acting president of JMM can come to West Bengal and seek the votes of the tribal peoples, she can also go to Jharkhand, where a large number of Bengalis live, and ask for their votes.
“We do everything for the people who live in the state,” he said.
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