Former JMM MLA from Silli, Amit Mahto has resigned from the party and accused the leadership of compromising the interest of the people of Jharkhand.
Mahto on Saturday night posted a message on his Facebook account about his resignation. His wife Seema Mahto too resigned from the party. She had once represented Silli assembly seat as the JMM MLA.
In his resignation, Mahto said that the party leadership left him hugely disappointed. “People like us had expected a lot from the party that it would safeguard the interests of tribals and local residents. We thought that the party would save the culture, language, and identity of Jharkhand. But the leadership has failed. Despite the JMM heading the government, local residents are not getting any benefit,” Mahto said.
A month back, Mahto had issued a statement against the Hemant Soren government. He criticized the government for giving patronage to non-Jharkhand languages in the job recruitment. He said that instead of bringing the domicile and employment policy based on the land record, the government is taking such steps that will only give space to outsiders to get jobs in Jharkhand.
Mahto said that on January 20, he had given a month-long time to the government to formulate the local employment policy, otherwise he would resign. However, during the ongoing language controversy, the state government removed Bhojpuri, Magahi, and Angika (a dialect of Maithili) from the list of regional languages in recruitment meant for Bokaro and Dhanbad, Mahto said that the Hemant Soren government did not give due respect to the local language.
The resignation of Mahto has come as a big jolt for the JMM since he has a considerable influence in his constituency. Mahto served in the students’ wing of the party for a long time. He entered into electoral politics by defeating Ajsu party chief Sudesh Mahto. But he lost the membership following his conviction in a criminal case.
The party, later on, fielded his wife Seema Mahto in the by-poll. She also defeated Sudesh Mahto. However, in the 2019 assembly election, Seema Mahto lost the election.
