Ranchi: Thousands of tribal people in traditional attire converged on Morabadi Ground here on Sunday for the ‘Adivasi Ekta Mahajutan’ rally to oppose the Centre’s proposed delimitation exercise, amid fears that it could reduce the number of constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes and weaken their political representation.Agriculture minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey, Congress MP Sukhdev Bhagat, party’s Jharkhand in-charge K Raju and working president Bandhu Tirkey were among the political leaders who attended the rally.Addressing the gathering, Tirkey said conducting delimitation solely on the basis of population would be unjust to the state’s tribal communities.“Due to migration and other reasons, Adivasi population has gone down in Jharkhand. Meanwhile, many people from other states settled here. Now comparing the population of both and exercising the delimitation process based on that is unjust,” she said.Tirkey said Congress would continue its fight against the delimitation bill both on the streets and in Parliament until it was amended to safeguard the rights of Adivasis.Raju accused BJP of attempting to dilute tribal representation through the exercise. “BJP is conspiring to reduce Adivasi-represented seats both in assemblies and Parliament through delimitation and introduce anti-tribal rules and regulations,” he said.Leader of opposition and BJP functionary Babulal Marandi, however, hit out at the state govt, accusing it of failing to identify the reasons behind the decline in Jharkhand’s tribal population.“According to Census reports, Adivasi population stood at 35.38% in 1951 in Jharkhand, which reduced to 26.20% in 2011, while Muslim population stood at 8.9% in 1951 and increased to 14.53% in 2011,” Marandi said.“Christian population witnessed a slight increase, while the population of Hindus also decreased to a great extent. If this trend continues, in 2051 the Adivasi population in Jharkhand will be reduced further to 22.21%. The JMM-Cong govt must focus its attention on the Census figures and find reasons behind the decreasing Adivasi population in Jharkhand and safeguard their rights,” he added.
