Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday hit out at his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the identity of Jharkhand tribes in the northeastern state was being erased by not according them ST status.

Addressing an election rally at Tapkara in Khunti district, Soren said that a large number of people with roots in Jharkhand have been residing in the tea gardens of Assam but their condition was not good.

"The chief minister of Assam pretends to be a well-wisher of the tribals here. But he has erased the identity of Jharkhand tribes in the northeastern state by not providing them Scheduled Tribe (ST) status," Soren alleged.

The CM accused the saffron party of dividing the society in the name of religion, and backward and forward.

He alleged that the election in Jharkhand was announced a month before its schedule due to "BJP's conspiracy to prevent the state government from carrying out development work".

Soren said that his government, in its first two years, struggled to deal with the COVID pandemic.

"When the situation started returning to normal, the opposition hatched one conspiracy after another. When they failed, they finally put me behind the bars," he said.

Soren said that as his government expedited development work, the election was announced before its schedule.

"To stop a single Hemant Soren, many opposition leaders are roaming around the state in helicopters," he said.

Exuding confidence in again forming alliance government in Jharkhand, Soren said that his government would increase monthly allowance under Maiyan Samman Yojana from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 from December, and provide houses to all over the next five years.

"We repeatedly sought funds from the Centre for the construction of houses for the poor. But, as it did not provide, we decided to build houses for the poor from the state exchequer. We found that there is a requirement of 25 lakh houses in the state," he added.

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