On Birsa Munda birth anniversary, PM Modi in Bihar with an eye in Jharkhand

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Jamui in Bihar on Friday to commemorate ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Divas’, which marks the commencement of the 150th birth anniversary year celebration of Bhagwan Birsa Munda.

He will unveil a commemorative coin and postal stamp in honour of the tribal leader and freedom fighter.

The PM will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of multiple development projects of about Rs 6,640 crore aimed at uplifting tribal communities and improving infrastructure in rural and remote areas of the region.


Although the PM’s engagement is in Bihar, the BJP will try to take advantage of his trip in the nearby election-bound Jharkhand, a state with a high tribal population, said people familiar with the matter.

Jharkhand has a 26 per cent tribal population and the BJP has been constantly working to woo this segment in the run-up to the state polls. There are 28 assembly constituencies in the state reserved for scheduled tribes (STs), 20 of which went to the polls in the first phase of voting on Wednesday. In the second phase, eight of the 38 seats where voting will take place are reserved for STs and another 10 seats have a substantial tribal population.

As the election enters Santhal Pargana region, the BJP has high stakes as it won only four of the 18 seats here in the 2019 election.

The BJP has been raking up the issue of demographic change and fighting for tribal rights to gain a foothold in Santhal Pargana. With Modi’s programme and announcement of several development projects targeted at tribal communities, the BJP will run a special campaign to publicise the projects among tribal voters, said the people cited earlier.

In 2021, the NDA government had declared that the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda would be celebrated as ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Divas’. Last year, on November 15, PM Modi visited the birthplace of Birsa Munda in Khunti district of Jharkhand.