Hemant Vs Himanta: Polls Gone But Rivalry Continues

After Hemant Soren said team will be sent to Assam to study plight of tea tribes, Himanta Biswa Sarma announced sending delegations to Jharkhand.

Ranchi:The undercurrent tension between Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren that intensified during the recent Assembly elections has once again come to the fore. This time, the tussle is over sending teams to respective states.

Hours after Soren announced sending a team to Assam to study the plight of tea tribes there, Sarma said that he too would send two delegations to Jharkhand to study two to three things.

Sarma, who was BJP co-in-charge for Jharkhand elections, had earlier hit out at the JMM-led coalition over the plight of tribals in Jharkhand due to alleged infiltration from Bangladesh. Soren, on the other hand had raised the plight of tea tribes residing in Assam.

After taking oath as CM on November 28, Soren took up the issue of tribals of Jharkhand working in the tea gardens of Assam at the first Cabinet meeting. Soren said that an all-party delegation and senior officials will go to Assam to study the condition of the tea tribes who had settled in the tea gardens of Assam years ago.

Earlier on September 25, Soren wrote a letter to Sarma raising the issue, alleging that the tea tribes were living in poor conditions.

In a retaliatory move, Sarma said that two delegations will now be sent to Jharkhand. However, he did not elaborate as to what these teams would assess but only said that two or three things would be seen in Jharkhand. He also said that the Jharkhand team is welcome here.

"On December 5, a decision will be taken at our Cabinet meeting about visiting some areas of Jharkhand. We will also go there and see two-three things," Sarma added.

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