A senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and legislator Simon Marandi has sparked a row after he organised a kissing competition at a fair in the tribal village of Talpahari, IANS reported. Marandi, who has been organising the annual fair in the village for over three decades, said the competition was organised to “promote love and modernity”.

Marandi organised the competition on Saturday night, and it was reported in the local newspapers on Monday. While Marandi said the aim was to reduce divorces in the tribal community, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party criticised him for hosting the event.

“Tribals are basically innocent and illiterate,” Marandi said, according to the Hindustan Times. “Because of this, the family system is weakening. To make them aware of our social structure and responsibility towards the family, the idea of a kissing competition was conceived,” he said.

“Tribal people are hesitant. The hesitation of tribal couples will end by kissing openly in the competition,” he said. Marandi retained his Littipara Assembly seat in the April 2017 bye-election.

The BJP, however, called the event a “mockery of tribal culture and tradition”.

“What is the JMM trying to prove by organising such a competition,” Ramesh Pushkar, a senior BJP leader, told IANS. Pushkar added: “One JMM legislator has asked for opening a bar in the Assembly, another is organising a kissing competition.”

Pushkar was referring to a suggestion by another JMM leader, Kunal Sarangi, who had proposed setting up a bar in the Assembly campus.