The INDIA bloc on Saturday filed a formal complaint against Assam Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, accusing him of making “inflammatory and divisive” remarks during a campaign rally in Jharkhand, reported The Indian Express.

The complaint, submitted to the chief electoral officer of Jharkhand, claimed Sarma’s rhetoric was designed to fuel communal tensions ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections on November 13 and 20. Sarma has been campaigning for the Hindutva party in the state.

In a November 1 speech in Sarath, Sarma reportedly suggested that Muslims tended to vote for a single party while the Hindu vote was divided across parties. He also suggested that the state’s Hemant Soren-led government “invites infiltrators” due to voting loyalties from “a special community”.

In recent years, the BJP has frequently sought to push claims of large-scale undocumented immigration from Bangladesh as the driving force behind demographic changes in the state, particularly in the Santhal Parganas.

In 2022, a BJP worker from Jharkhand filed a petition before the High Court claiming that the proportion of Scheduled Tribes in the division was declining due to “illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh” who were marrying into Adivasi families to acquire land and influence. A Scroll investigation has found such claims to be false.

On September 12, the Centre told the court in an affidavit that there had indeed been a “drop in tribal population” in the area. While the government said that undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh had been entering the area since Independence, it also highlighted other possible reasons for the decline in the share of the Adivasi population.

INDIA bloc leaders, including those from the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, alleged that Sarma’s repeated use of words like “infiltrators” is part of a strategy to paint Muslims as outsiders and heighten existing social divides for political advantage.

In a letter made public at a press conference on Saturday, the INDIA bloc said that Sarma’s remarks were “venomous” and aimed at creating “a civil war-like situation” in Jharkhand, violating the principles of free and fair elections.

The bloc said Sarma’s conduct disregarded judicial rulings against hate speech and demanded that the Election Commission act to show that it “does not stand by such actions of any person which can result in disturbing the process of free and fair elections”.

“He is knowingly colouring all the people of a particular religious minority in one shade and portraying all of them to be infiltrators so as to…break the social fabric of the state of Jharkhand,” said the letter.

Sarma, however, defended his statements.

“Talking about Hindus does not mean targeting Muslims,” he said. “I don’t even mention the word ‘Muslim’. India is a Hindu civilisation and speaking about protecting them is a positive thing.”

The INDIA bloc said it would pursue legal recourse if no action is taken against Sarma within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Hussainabad candidate Kushwaha Shivpujan Mehta filed a separate complaint in court accusing Sarma of disturbing communal harmony with his comments at a rally in the constituency, reported India Today.

Sarma reportedly promised that the Hussainabad administrative sub-division of Palamu district would be carved out as a district unto itself if the BJP came to power in the state. He said the district would be named after the Hindu deities Ram or Krishna.

The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha will contest 70 seats out of the 81 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand. The Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties will fight in the remaining 11 constituencies.

Also read: How the BJP is trying to exploit Adivasis’ anxieties in Jharkhand for electoral gain