Union home minister Amit Shah and Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge threw barbs at each other while campaigning for their party candidates in Dumka and Godda Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand.

The spotlight in the state moves to the Santhal Pargana region for the last phase of poll scheduled on June 1.

Jharkhand’s three Lok Sabha seats — Godda, Dumka and Rajmahal — go to poll on June 1. Godda will see three-term Lok Sabha BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in a close fight with Congress Pradeep Yadav while Dumka sees JMM patriarch Shibu Soren’s eldest daughter-in-law Sita Soren having switched over to the BJP taking on JMM’s veteran MLA Nalin Soren. Rajmahal seat will see two-term JMM MP Vijay Hansdak against the BJP’s Tala Marandi.

Shah, while campaigning in Jamtara under the Dumka Lok Sabha, seat tried to play the pro-tribal and religious polarization card by claiming that Narendra Modi was the only Prime Minister to have visited the hut of revered tribal icon Birsa Munda at Khunti.

He also claimed that after the end of five phases of the general election, the BJP has already won 310 seats and assured that they would cross 400 seats after the sixth and seventh phases.

Going back to the BJP’s time-tested religious polarization strategy, Shah appealed to the tribal voters to elect a government which would stop ghuspetiye.

“If infiltration is not stopped, both the land and forests of the tribals will be in danger. The issue of infiltration here is a big question for the tribals,” said Shah.

Jamtara has a sizable Muslim populace.

Shah also targeted former chief minister Hemant Soren (arrested on alleged money laundering charges by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 and under judicial custody at Ranchi) and Congress rural development minister Alamgir Alam (arrested earlier this month by the ED on alleged tender scam and is under remand of the ED).

“Jharkhand has become an ATM of corruption for the JMM and the Congress. What respect can a state get if a former chief minister is in jail and a cabinet minister is in jail after a heap of cash was recovered from the minister’s personal secretary’s servant house. We also saw a Congress leader from whose house ₹350 crore was recovered,” asked Shah.

Meanwhile, Kharge while addressing a rally in Deoghar under the Godda Lok Sabha seat accused the Modi government of looting the country’s water, forest and land resources in the last 10 years like the British and dividing the country on religious lines.

“Like the British, the Modi government looted water, forest and land of the country in 10 years. Modi handed over the country’s assets to his selected billionaire friends. We faced the British and we are not afraid of the BJP,” said Kharge.