The first phase of elections has taken place in Jharkhand. The second phase of voting will take place on November 20. Meanwhile, BJP has intensified its attack on the Soren government regarding illegal infiltration and changing demography among Santhals. BJP alleges that Bangladeshi infiltrators have changed the entire demography in Santhal Pargana, the tribal area of Jharkhand. However, state CM Hemant Soren and Congress have termed these allegations of BJP as baseless.
Shocking revelations have been made in the affidavit filed by the Center in the hearing of Jharkhand High Court on September 12. According to the central government, there has been large-scale Bangladeshi infiltration in six districts of Santhal Pargana. According to the affidavit filed by the Central Government in the High Court, there has been large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis in the tribal areas and the two districts most targeted by the infiltrators are Sahibganj and Pakur. For this reason, the number of madrassas in these districts has also increased significantly in the last few years.
According to the Central Government, in 1961 the population of Sahibganj was 4 lakh 14 thousand. Among these, the Muslim population was 82 thousand, which was about 20 percent of the total population. In 2011, the total population of Sahibganj itself increased to 11.5 lakh. In this the Muslim population reached approximately 4 lakhs. Which is 35 percent of the total population. This means that in just 50 years the population of Muslims increased by 15 percent in percentage terms. Which was only 20 percent in 1961, it increased to 35 percent in 2011. In 1961, the population of Pakur district was about 35 lakhs. There were 76000 Muslims in it but in 2011 the Muslim population increased from 22 percent to 36 percent i.e. 3.5 lakh 22 thousand. Here there has been an increase of 14 percent in 50 years.
According to the report of the Central Government, in 1951 the Hindu population in Santhal Pargana was 90 percent of the total population, that is, if 100 people lived in an area, then 90 of them were Hindus. In this too, tribal population was 45%, Muslim was 9% and Christian population was less than 1% but in 2011 Hindu population reached 68%, tribal was 28% and Muslim was 23% and Christian was 4%. In this way, in the Santhal Pargana area, between 1951 and 2011, the number of Hindus decreased by 22 percent, while the tribal population decreased by 17 percent and the Muslim population increased by 14 percent. Not only this, Christians also increased by about 4 percent.
The changing arithmetic of the population of Santhal Pargana is giving serious indications, seeing this no one can deny that the Hindu tribals here are decreasing rapidly and the people of other religions are increasing. Illegal Bangladeshis are not just working on the strategy of making a bride and becoming a son-in-law, they make long term investments to change the demography. They get everything from Voter ID card to their Aadhar card made. In Sahibganj district, the administration had removed the names of more than 7900 Bangladeshi infiltrators from the voter list. In such blocks the demography has changed 200 times to 300 times.
Bangladesh border is at a distance of 50 km to 200 km from Sahibganj, Godda, Pakur, Dumka, Deoghar and Jamtara. It is just a matter of two to three hours for them to enter these areas from Bangladesh. Being a border state, there is not much difference in the speech and dress of the people. Because of this, these people settle in these areas very easily. Although the case of Bangladeshi infiltration is going on in the High Court only in Santhal Pargana area, but the Prime Minister had also mentioned Kolhan area in the rally in Jamshedpur. Kolhan includes Sarai Kela, Kharsawan, West Singhbhu and East Singhbhu districts. Tribal vote is most important in Santhal Pargana and Kolhan belt.
In such a situation, it is important to see the arithmetic of assembly seats in these areas. There are three Lok Sabha seats and 18 assembly seats in six districts of Santhal Pargana. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP got two seats in Dumka, Godda and Rajmahal and JMM got one seat, but in 2024, there was a big change and out of these, BJP got only one seat i.e. Godda and JMM got the seat of Dumka Rajmahal. Could collect. In the 2019 assembly elections, out of 18 seats in Santhal Pargana, JMM had won nine seats including all seven ST reserved seats, its ally Congress had won five seats, while BJP had won four seats.
Kolhan has two Lok Sabha seats and 14 Assembly seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had won the Singhbhum seat of these areas and BJP had won in Jamshedpur. Despite Congress MP from Singhbhum Geeta Koda joining BJP in 2024, she had to face defeat and this seat went to JMM. This time also BJP won from Jamshedpur seat. If we talk about the 2019 assembly elections, BJP was defeated on all the 14 assembly seats of Kolhan. Of these seats, JMM won 11 seats, Congress won two and an independent won one seat.
Tribal vote bank is the biggest factor for victory in Jharkhand. This vote has always stood with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, but this time to make a dent in this vote bank, BJP has handed over the command of the party in the state to tribal leader Babulal Marandi to make a comeback in the assembly elections, while the biggest leader of Kolhan And Champai Soren, known as Kolhan Tiger, has been included in BJP. At the time of Lok Sabha elections, BJP also included Soren family's elder daughter-in-law Sita Soren and Geeta Koda, wife of former CM Madhu Koda. BJP also gave tickets to both of them in the Lok Sabha elections but both could not win.
In the assembly elections, BJP is again trying to win over the tribals in its fold so that it can once again hoist the saffron flag to power in Jharkhand. This is the reason why the party has started strongly raising the issue of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltration in tribal areas like Santhal Pargana and Kolhan in the election environment.
