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The first phase of elections took place in Jharkhand. The second phase of voting will take place on November 20. Meanwhile, the BJP has intensified its attack on the Soren government over illegal infiltration and demographic change among Santhals. The BJP alleges that Bangladeshi infiltrators have changed the entire demographics in Santhal Pargana, the tribal area of Jharkhand. However, state CM Hemant Soren and the Congress have termed these allegations by the BJP as baseless.
Shocking revelations were made in the affidavit filed by the Center in the hearing before the 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 before the High Court, there has been large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis into the tribal areas and the two districts most targeted by the infiltrators are Sahibganj and Pakur. For this reason, the number of madrasas in these districts has also increased significantly in recent years.
Demographics changed in Sahibganj and Pakur.
According to the Central Government, in 1961 the population of Sahibganj was 4 lakh 14 thousand. Among them, the Muslim population was 82,000, which accounted for approximately 20 percent of the total population. In 2011, the total population of Sahibganj 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 Muslim population increased by 15 percent in percentage terms. Which in 1961 was only 20 per cent, increased to 35 per cent in 2011. In 1961, the population of Pakur district was about 35 lakhs. There were 76,000 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 a 14 percent increase in 50 years.
According to the Central Government report, in 1951 the Hindu population in Santhal Pargana was 90 per cent of the total population, that is, if 100 people lived in an area, then 90 of them were Hindus. In this too, the tribal population was 45%, the Muslim 9% and the Christian population was less than 1%, but in 2011 the Hindu population reached 68%, the tribal 28%, the Muslim 23% and the Christian 4%. Thus, 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 approximately 4 percent.
The changing population arithmetic of Santhal Pargana is giving serious indications as no one can deny that here Hindu tribes are rapidly decreasing and people of other religions are increasing. Illegal Bangladeshis are not only working on the strategy of getting married and becoming a son-in-law, but are also making long-term investments to change the demographics. They get everything from voter ID card to Aadhar card. In Sahibganj district, the administration had removed the names of more than 7,900 Bangladeshi infiltrators from the voter list. In these blocks the demographics have changed between 200 and 300 times.
What districts are included?
The border with Bangladesh is at a distance of 50 to 200 km from Sahibganj, Godda, Pakur, Dumka, Deoghar and Jamtara. It is only a matter of two or 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 Bangladesh infiltration case is being heard in the High Court only in the Santhal Pargana area, the Prime Minister also mentioned the Kolhan area in the rally in Jamshedpur. Kolhan includes the districts of Sarai Kela, Kharsawan, West Singhbhu and East Singhbhu. The tribal vote is most important in the Santhal Pargana and Kolhan belt.
Kolhan-Santhal Political Mathematics
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 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won two seats in Dumka, Godda and Rajmahal and JMM won one seat, but in 2024, there was a big change and out of these, BJP won only one seat i.e. Godda and JMM they got the Dumka seat Rajmahal could charge. In the 2019 assembly elections, out of 18 seats in Santhal Pargana, the JMM won nine seats, including the seven reserved seats from the ST, its ally Congress won five seats, while the BJP won four seats.
Kolhan has two seats in the Lok Sabha and 14 seats in the Assembly. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won the Singhbhum seat in these areas and the BJP won in Jamshedpur. Even though Congress MP Singhbhum Geeta Koda joined the BJP in 2024, she had to face defeat and this seat went to JMM. This time the BJP also won from the Jamshedpur seat. If we talk about the 2019 assembly elections, the BJP was defeated in all 14 Kolhan assembly seats. Of these seats, JMM won 11 seats, Congress won two and an independent won one seat.
Why does the problem of infiltration arise?
Tribal vote bank is the most important factor for victory in Jharkhand. This vote has always favored Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, but this time to make a dent in this vote bank, the BJP has handed over the leadership of the party in the state to tribal leader Babulal Marandi to return to the assembly elections, while the Senior Kolhan and Champai Soren leader, known as Kolhan Tiger, has been inducted into the BJP. At the time of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP also included the Soren family’s eldest daughter-in-law Sita Soren and Geeta Koda, wife of former CM Madhu Koda. The BJP also gave tickets to both of them for the Lok Sabha elections, but neither of them could win.
In the assembly elections, the BJP is once again trying to win over the tribals in its fold so that it can once again hoist the saffron flag in power in Jharkhand. This is the reason why the party has started strongly raising the issue of infiltration of Bangladesh and Rohingya in tribal areas like Santhal Pargana and Kolhan in the electoral environment.
