Extending its support to AJSU party on the demand of special status for the State, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha president Babulal Marandi on Sunday called statewide bandh on March 2. AJSU has already called a bandh on the day demanding special status for the State.
Marandi while addressing the media said that he is with AJSU on the issue of special status for the State. He also slammed Hemant Soren Government, and alleged that the government had been formed by the coalition partners only for the purpose of making money. “We have no objections to the decision of granting special status to Seemandhra, but the states like Jharkhand which are far more backward as per the Raghuram Rajan Committee report should also be considered for the same,” said Marandi.
The former Chief Minister also claimed that despite the fact that the report of Rajan committee bracketing Jharkhand to be fifth among the least developed states in the country, special status has not been granted to it so far. He also slammed the UPA government at the Centre for passing Telangana bill at this particular point of time for political gains in the run up to the forthcoming Parliamentary elections.
Members of JVM, AJSU and BJP on Saturday, had jointly condemned the decision to bless Seemandhra with the special status which would provide easy loans, additional grants and other facilities. The members were of the view that Jharkhand fulfilled the entire criterion set for the status. Coming down heavily on the JMM-led Soren government in the state, Marandi said that the government is busy in selling out natural resources of the State only to the big fishes at the cost of the common people.
“The Government was formed in the State only for making money, and right from coal to sand, everything was sold out taking huge sums of bribe from them,” he said. Contractors from Delhi and Mumbai are looking for new ways for making money after bribing the ministers in the Government,” On the question of the possibility of Third Front, Marandi said that he is a part of it whose only motive is to defeat the Congress and BJP by preventing anti BJP -Congress votes to get distributed.
Keeping his cards close to his chest, Marndi also said that his candidature in the forthcoming lok Sabha elections will be decided by the party workers who have asked for organizational role to strengthen it. “I have told the party executive committee for a role to mobilize the voters for better performance in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections, which will be decided later by the workers. I will follow the instructions given by the committee taken during the distribution of seats for Parliamentary seats,” Marandi said.