'Politics over dead bodies won't fetch votes': JMM's Hemant Soren slams BJP over Pulwama ‘politicisation'

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren has slammed the BJP for allegedly politicising the Pulwama terror attack, saying “politics over dead bodies” will not fetch votes.

The former Jharkhand chief minister, who was here to hold talks with grand alliance members for firming up the tie-up, said the government should do its job and allow the security forces to theirs. The forces are competent at giving a befitting reply, he said. “What about the people who are dying because of hunger, farmers committing suicide, people are unemployed on a large scale.

You (BJP-led government at the Centre) don't give answers to that. Doing politics over dead bodies will not fetch votes,” he said during an interaction with a group of reporters here on Saturday.

He slammed the government for alleged politicisation of the Pulwama terror attack. A suicide bombing in Pulwama on February 14, carried out by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), had claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel. India had carried out a preemptive non-military air strike at a JeM terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26.

“They (the government) talk about Pulwama, what about the jawans being killed in suicide attacks regularly.The jawans all come from an agriculture background. So, at home the farmer is dying of hunger and at the border his son is getting killed,” Soren said. He alleged that the families of the jawans killed from his state are all “duped” and given no benefits.

The BJP wants to take advantage of such situations, he claimed. “When jawans get killed, their bodies go to respective states and the BJP plays politics. People have now understood their games,” Soren said. The opposition parties have been accusing the government of politicising the Pulwama attack and the subsequent Balakot air strikes, a charge the government has outrightly rejected.

Soren said the JMM besides raising the issues of water, jungle and land, will also aggressively take up unemployment and negligence of farmers in the Lok Sabha and later in the assembly polls. The JMM leader alleged that the development of Jharkhand under the BJP government is only on paper.There is nothing to show on the ground, he said.

The JMM on Saturday had said the grand alliance in the state has been officially sealed for the Lok Sabha polls. The JMM, along with the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) comprise the grand alliance in the eastern Indian state. There is also a consensus to include the Left if it agrees on the seat sharing formula, details of which are still under wraps.

Jharkhand's 14 Lok Sabha seats will have elections in four phases. "The fight against @BJPIndia & BJP4Jharkhand in GeneralElections2019 is a momentous one and the future Jharkhand depends on the combined Grand Alliance which is now officially sealed," Soren tweeted Saturday night. The former chief minister had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday, following which the deal was clinched.

JMM sources said the seat sharing details and the official announcement of the grand alliance will be made in Ranchi before Holi in the presence of party president Shibu Soren.

-PTI