Jharkhand chief minister and JMM working president Hemant Soren on Thursday made a strong pitch for including tribal areas of Bengal under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

Addressing a rally at Jamda Circus Ground in Jhargram, Bengal, Soren made it clear that the JMM would be fielding its candidates in all the tribal-dominated areas during the Assembly polls in the neighbouring state.

The rally was attended by over 3,000 JMM cadres mostly from Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore.

“The JMM has a history of fighting for the cause of tribals and we would fight for inclusion of tribal areas in Bengal under the Fifth Schedule of Constitution. Jhargram and nearby districts were a part of our original greater Jharkhand proposal. We would want these districts to be included under the Fifth Schedule so that tribals have a say in governance at every level,” said Soren, who spoke in Santhali for most of his speech.

The Fifth Schedule deals with administration of scheduled areas where tribal communities are in a majority. Tribal Advisory Councils (TACs) are constitutional bodies formed under the Fifth Schedule to deal with welfare and advancement of Scheduled Tribes in states.

Taking a veiled dig at the BJP-led central government, Soren asked the people to beware of the party which had a history of selling lands of the poor to the corporate sector.

“We should be cautious of those people whose only agenda is to sell property and resources to capitalists. If this continues, then the day is not far when blood would be cheaper than water in our country,” said Soren.

Other senior leaders who attended the rally included Jharkhand transport minister Champai Soren, labour minister Satyanand Bhokta (from the RJD) and JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.

Another rally by Soren is planned for the second week of February at Raghunathpur in Purulia district, while the third is going to be held at Alipurduar in north Bengal in early March.

In the 2016 Assembly polls, the JMM had fielded candidates in 23 constituencies in Bengal, which were spread across Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Birbhum, Darjeeling and Alipurduar districts. Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and Birbhum share their borders with Jharkhand, while Darjeeling and Alipurduar have sizeable tribal population, who migrated to work in tea estates.

Bhattacharya, however, was non-committal on whether the JMM would forge an pre-poll alliance with either the ruling TMC or the Congress in the polls.

“At the moment we are planning to contest the polls on our own without thinking too much about an alliance,” said Bhattacharya.