RANCHI: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday announced its list of 21 candidates for the elections to the 126-member Assam assembly.
JMM is keen to shed its image as a regional party and emerge as a national political outfit, with an aim to woo about 70 lakh people of the tea tribe community, many members of which trace their ancestry to Jharkhand.
"After a detailed deliberation, the JMM has decided to contest 21 seats in the upcoming assembly elections in Assam," JMM general secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey told PTI.
Pandey said the party has fielded Priti Rekha Baria (Mazbat), Teharu Gour (Biswanath), Amit Nag (Khumtai), Bhuben Murari (Chabua), Phedricson Hasda (Gossaingaon), Baldev Teli (Sonari), Peter Minj (Duliajan), Paban Sautal (Rongonadi), Bharat Nayak (Digboi) and Prabhat Das Panika (Bhergaon).
The other candidates include Mahabir Baske (Tingkhong), Abdul Mazan (Barchalla), Mathew Topno (Rangapara), Jemal Minj (Margherita), Sanjay Bagh (Naharkatia), Muna Karmakar (Makum), Ratnakar Tati (Doomdooma), Sahil Munda (Sarupathar), Sonia (Titabor) and Pratapching Rangphar (Bokajan).
JMM is eying Assam's sizeable tribal population, including a large number of tea garden workers with their roots in Jharkhand's Chhotanagpur region, which presents a fertile ground for the party's expansion.
These communities, the JMM believes, have social and economic concerns that "have not been adequately addressed" and are seeking stronger political representation.
Pandey said, "Hemant Soren has emerged as a popular leader in the nationwide fight for the rights of tribals. He has earned the faith of the tea tribe community. Local tribal people in Assam also consider him a strong personality who can take up their cause and fight against injustice."
Soren has been visiting Assam and raising the issues of the tribals in the northeastern state since the JMM won the Jharkhand assembly polls in 2024.
Soren, on the concluding day of the Jharkhand assembly's Budget session earlier this month, had claimed that deprived communities from across the nation are looking at Jharkhand for raising their issues. "We will definitely become the voice of tribals facing atrocities elsewhere, be it Assam, Manipur or any corner of the country," the Jharkhand CM had said.
The Jharkhand government had, in November 2024, approved the formation of a panel to study the plight of the "marginalised" tea tribes in Assam. The decision, taken in the first cabinet meeting of the Hemant Soren government, came in the backdrop of the poll battle between the JMM-led coalition and the NDA, in which Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma repeatedly raised the issue of the "predicament" of Jharkhand's tribal community due to alleged large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh.
Soren had earlier raised the issue of the tea tribes in Assam, and the formation of the panel was being viewed as taking the fight to Sarma's turf.
The JMM-led alliance had stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed to win just 24. The JMM is banking heavily on Soren and his legislator wife Kalpana Soren, who also emerged as a popular tribal voice, to win people's support in Assam. The party has also indicated that it is open to forming alliances in Assam.
Hemant Soren had earlier held meetings with leaders of opposition parties in the northeastern state -- a move seen as part of a broader effort to build a coalition-based entry into Assam's complex political landscape.
The party has already announced a list of 20 star campaigners, including Hemant Soren, his wife and several Jharkhand cabinet ministers, for the Assam elections. Party insiders say the JMM aims to build a durable political base in Assam while promoting a narrative centred on development, dignity and rights of tribals.
Earlier this month, Soren had a discussion with Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi on the strategy for the upcoming assembly elections.
During his recent visit to Assam, Soren also emphasised the critical role of tea garden workers in the state's economy, noting that their labour has been central to the recognition of India's tea industry. He called for unity among tribal communities to safeguard their identity and rights.
Soren alleged that those in power in Assam were "traders and not politicians", and that they "marginalised" the tribal community and focused only on "extracting resources."
In Assam, where elections are due on April 9, Soren claimed that tea tribes were "marginalised" despite their significant contribution to the northeastern state's economy.
Addressing a recent programme organised by the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA), Soren alleged that tribals were being deliberately kept "weak through policies of division and neglect."
He warned that any attempt to suppress tribal voices would be resisted.
Earlier, Soren, in a letter to his Assam counterpart, had expressed deep concern over the plight of 70 lakh tea tribe community members in Assam and sought ST status for them.
"I am acutely aware of the significant challenges faced by the tea tribes in Assam, more so because a majority of them are the indigenous tribes of Jharkhand, including Santhali, Kuruk, Munda, Oraon and others, whose ancestors migrated during colonial rule to work in tea plantations," he said in the letter.
He had said that although most of the ethnic groups of the tea tribes are recognised as STs in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, Assam continued to classify them as OBCs.