Two days after the Jharkhand BJP deleted a video on alleged infiltrators in the state following complaints to the Election Commission (EC), Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren took a swipe at the party on Tuesday, saying: “The institutions responsible for finding them (infiltrators) said there were none. So, where are they?”

In an interview to The Indian Express a day before Jharkhand votes in the second phase of the Assembly elections, Soren, when asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that it was the state government’s job to find the alleged infiltrators and governing borders is difficult because they are porous, said: “Then Amit Shah should give the job to us.”

Soren, who was arrested in January on money laundering charges and got out on bail in June, accused the Centre of using the “ED (Enforcement Directorate) and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) or I-T (Income-Tax Department) to weaken the Opposition and nothing more”.

“I have no qualms accepting that if I have done wrong, then I should be jailed, but when I hadn’t and I still went to jail then I was not able to accept it,” he said. “From inside the prison premises, I realised that the main idea was to destabilise the government and weaken the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). However, we fought it legally and when I came out on bail I saw that the situation was haywire aur ek toofan aaya hua hai (there is a storm outside). Then I had to get into the system (by becoming the CM again) again to set the course right.”

Asked about his time in prison, Soren said: “Jail ki duniya hi alag hai (the world inside prison is very different). More than half of them don’t deserve prison time. A tribal boy grew up into an adult in jail. People have not seen their families for 10 years as they are so poor that if their families meet them by spending, say Rs 5,000, they won’t be able to eat for the next two months. Some people have a death sentence but they are clueless about the next course of action. The tribals of Jharkhand — Mundas, Oraons, Hos — don’t understand the legal language and it is a one-way system where access is very limited. Then I saw that there are no healthcare facilities for women prisoners. But then I also saw how an ecosystem exists that caters to the needs of various people. Prisoners are teaching prisoners and taking care of the elderly among others. It gave me a different worldview.”

Asked about his former JMM colleague and ex-CM Champai Soren alleging ill-treatment at the party’s hands when he switched to the BJP, the CM said: “These are just stories. I did not remove him from the party. He has been an MLA for long and whenever our government was there he was made a minister. I had a CM post that I gave to Champai, I could not have given the Prime Minister’s post to him.”

Soren said these Assembly elections were different from 2019 as people back then were “really fed up” with the “double-engine government” of the BJP.

“And we went to people seeking votes for change. This election we went to the people on developmental issues. If we compare the machineries that we were up against, there is a massive change. This is the first time in the history of Jharkhand that the elections are being held this early. So, we did not get time to prepare better. Earlier, we did not have many complaints against the Election Commission but now there are a lot of questions that have come up, including (non-cognizance of) hate speeches or in general the conduct of elections. There is no level playing field on the ground and we felt it very clearly. The Centre uses these machineries very smartly. Even the ED, the CBI, and I-T are active during the elections. The attempt was to impact us psychologically.”

The JMM leader said he was “not nervous” about the results as the INDIA bloc’s campaign centred around his government’s development work. Asked what he thinks how the BJP will fare in the elections, Soren said, “Rural areas mein toh peeteenge hi peetenge, urban areas mein bhi peetenge (The BJP will bite the dust in not only rural areas but will lose votes in urban areas as well). Minorities, by default, don’t vote for the BJP and now the middle class and other voters too won’t.”