Ranchi: Leader of the opposition Babulal Marandi on Monday urged Union home minister Amit Shah to carry out a special drive in Santhal Pargana division of the state to identify illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants and hold them in detention centres before extradition.In a letter to Shah on Monday, Marandi claimed a massive change had taken place in the demography of assembly constituencies in the region. The former CM claimed the transformation was a threat to national security and tribal identity.Marandi alleged that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were hiding in Santhal Pargana region on a large scale, and the unprecedented change in the data of voters’ list between 2019 and 2024 was proof of it.“In Pakur assembly constituency, there was an overall 24% increase of voters in five years, but the rise related to a particular community was 40.9%. In Littipara constituency, the overall increase in voters was 10.6%, but the figure was 35.5% for a particular community. Similar changes have taken place in other assembly constituencies of the region,” Marandi claimed in his letter.He alleged that members of one community were occupying land from tribals in violation of Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act, and their population had registered a sharp rise in Pakur and Sahibganj districts while the ratio of Moolvasis and Adivasis was on a sharp decline.He alleged that ruling parties in the state were providing political protection to illegal migrants as they formed a safe vote bank. “If the illegal immigration was not stopped immediately, the Santhal tribals would lose their identity in their own land,” Marandi claimed.Congress’s state spokesperson Rakesh Sinha said Marandi should seek the resignation of Shah as illegal immigration was a failure of his ministry. “Jharkhand does not share international border with Bangladesh. The opposition is raising the matter because they do not have issues,” he said.
