Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and former chief minister of the state Champai Soren on Tuesday said that he has decided to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming that only the Hindutva party was serious about the problem of “infiltrators from Bangladesh”.

Soren alleged that other parties were turning a blind eye to the matter because of their electoral interests. “So, in the fight to protect the identity and existence of the Adivasis, I have reposed my trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah,” he said.

The former chief minister claimed that undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh were harming Adivasi culture socially and economically in Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana division. He claimed that undocumented immigrants had outnumbered the Adivasi population in areas such as Pakur and Rajmahal.

“What can be more unfortunate than the fact that these infiltrators are occupying the lands of the descendants of those heroes who never accepted slavery of the foreign British in the fight for water, forest and land?” Soren said in a post on X.

While the BJP has persistently made claims about undocumented Muslim immigrants grabbing land in Jharkhand, a Scroll investigation found no evidence for the claim.

Last month, Adivasi rights group Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan also refuted the claim that undocumented migrants from Bangladesh were responsible for the declining Adivasi population in Jharkhand. It said that migration from other states to cities in Jharkhand and migration of Adivasis to other states caused the demographic change.

Also read: BJP claims Muslims are marrying Adivasi women to grab land in Jharkhand. The claims don’t add up

Political churn in Jharkhand

Champai Soren had taken over as Jharkhand’s chief minister on February 2. This came after Hemant Soren resigned on January 31, hours before his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case.

He resigned as the chief minister on July 3 after Hemant Soren was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court on June 28.

On August 18, Champai Soren had denied reports that he was joining the BJP ahead of the Jharkhand Assembly elections expected to take place later this year.

However, the 67-year-old had said that he felt insulted by the way he was asked to step down as the chief minister in July, after 152 days in office, to make way for party leader Hemant Soren to return to the post.

On Monday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that Soren will join the BJP on August 30.

BJP back to old tactics, alleges Hemant Soren

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday alleged that the BJP was again resorting to its old tactic of poaching legislators from rival parties, reported PTI.

“The opposition has again started its break the government and poach the MLAs campaign as it did during the Lok Sabha elections,” he said. “They [BJP] are bound to get a befitting reply from people in the upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand as the party did in the Lok Sabha elections.”

The Election Commission has not yet announced the dates for Assembly elections in Jharkhand that are expected to take place later this year.