The JMM in Jharkhand will start a ‘pratirodh’ (resistance) campaign from February 15 to “expose the conspiracy behind the arrest of Hemant Soren” at all the panchayats in the state.

However, party insiders confided that the campaign would be part of the strategy to mobile tribals, moolvasis, minorities and other masses highlighting the “misuse of Enforcement Directorate by the BJP-led Centre in the arrest of popular tribal leader Hemant Soren under a conspiracy” ahead of the Lok Sabha polls scheduled in next few months.

Party insiders feel that this would be an opportunity to galvanise tribal, moolvasis sentiments against the BJP by playing the “victim card” and take a lead ahead of the BJP and other political parties in starting election campaigning.

“Directives have been issued and our party supporters are ready in all the panchayats (over 4,300 panchayats in Jharkhand). We will start the pratirodh abhiyan from February 15 and it will continue till the conspiracy behind the arrest of our leader Hemant Soren is exposed,” said JMM central general secretary and party spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya.

The leader said that party leaders will be visiting all the panchayats and informing the masses about not only the “trumped up and baseless” charges levelled against Soren and also the inhuman condition in which the former
chief minister is being kept during the remand period by the ED.

“Soren has been in ED remand continuously for the last 13 days which I feel is the longest period for any political leader under ED remand. He has been kept in a cramped basement space and there are no lights and no sound. It is part of a mental torture strategy adopted by the federal agency which is working at the behest of the BJP-led Centre,” alleged Bhattacharya.

Taking a veiled dig at the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Ranchi for extending the remand period, Bhattacharya said: “The PMLA court has all power and could have directly given 13 days remand. But we feel that there is deliberate posturing by allowing the former chief minister to come to the court and then extending the remand period regularly. It is also a sort of a media trial.”

The JMM leader was on February 2 remanded to the ED custody by a special PMLA court in Ranchi for five days. The court had on February 7 extended the ED remand of the former chief minister by five days.

A special PMLA court on Monday extended the remand of Soren by three days in an alleged money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam even as the ED prayed for four days of remand of the JMM leader.

Meanwhile, the Jharkhand High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on a petition filed by arrested Soren against the probe agency till February 27.