Union minister Arjun Munda on Monday claimed that the Congress and INDIA bloc converted tribals as "mere vote bank", while the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that these people get due respect.

Attacking the Congress, the former three-time Jharkhand chief minister claimed that the party believed that tribals who lived in jungles were criminals by nature and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government first took interest in their welfare.

"The Congress in its 60 years regime treated tribals as mere vote banks whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to ensure that they get due recognition and respect. This is why the Prime Minister chose Khunti to launch major schemes including a Rs 24,000 crore programme for PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) from Khunti," Munda said in an interview with PTI.

Munda, Union tribal and agriculture minister, is contesting Lok Sabha elections from Khunti reserved seat that is identified with tribal icon Birsa Munda.

In 2019, Munda won the Khunti LS seat, facing the problems of human trafficking, poverty, opium cultivation and Naxalism, with a slender margin of 1,445 votes, and is once again locked in a direct fight with Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda.

"This is true that tribal society has been used as a vote bank only. There were no schemes, no policies for them. When their rights and systems were adopted later, Congress ensured that tribal issues came under the Home Department. They believed that those who resided in jungle were criminal by nature," he claimed.

It was the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who took interest in their welfare and later Modi ensured justice to them, Munda said.

He claimed that the tribal society understood the game plan of Congress that it wanted to keep them away from development to reap benefits of their innocence and now they are aware of their rights and understood who was working for them.

"They will vote for BJP under a dynamic and visionary leader like Prime Minister Modi. We are confident to cross 400-mark this time and in Jharkhand we will win all 14 Lok Sabha seats irrespective of tribal or non-tribal seats," Munda claimed.

To a question, he admitted that Khunti and Simdega are known for human trafficking particularly of girls.

"I have undertaken an innovative step to boost confidence and provide employment to girls here. I had initiated moves like learning while earning - a programme to ensure employment to tribal girls.

"I am happy that an unprecedented experiment is becoming successful as thousands of girls have been trained by Tata Electronics. Now mobile phones parts of Apple are being made by Khunti girls," he said.

They got skilled and have further scope for upgrading education by pursuing diploma and degree courses, the BJP leader said.

Massive horticulture initiatives are also being taken to bring youths engaged in drug trafficking, extremism to the mainstream, he said.

Khunti (ST) seat with a total 13.12 lakh voters including 6.67 lakh women will go to polls on May 13.

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