Ranchi, Nov. 30: The move to grant tribal status to Kurmis is snowballing into a controversy.

The state unit of the CPM today charged the Arjun Munda government with misleading the people of Jharkhand by recommending the inclusion of some other backward caste groups in the Scheduled Tribe list.

Addressing reporters, CPM state secretary J.S.Majumdar said the recent ploy of the Munda government to include the ?Kurmi-Mahtos? in the ST list is nothing but a move to gain political mileage before the forthcoming Assembly election. Majumdar said, ?The proposal is a ploy to cheat the Kurmis and foment social tension. The NDA is using the caste card for electoral gains. Nothing was discussed about it at the recently-held BJP executive committee meeting in the city as the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had rejected a similar proposal on January 7, 2003.?

Majumdar said under the procedure, a proposal such as this has to be collectively approved by the state government, the Registrar General of India and the National SC/ST Commission. He said when the proposal was initially rejected, the Arjun Munda government could have sent it again to the Centre, but the BJP chose to keep mum about it. ?Then why did they suddenly rake it up when the elections are barely months away,? Majumdar said.

He said as the BJP?s attempt to keep JMM leader Shibu Soren out of the Union cabinet by embroiling him in court cases backfired, the party was forced to play the caste card. The CPM condemned the state government for ?shamelessly? using the state exchequer to host the BJP executive committee meeting and misusing the administrative machinery.

Other Opposition parties are also terming the recommendation a political stunt. The issue has sparked a social unrest but whether the party can draw any political mileage from the move can be ascertained only after the Assembly poll due in February next year.

Political observers feel that the move was aimed to checkmate the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the state before the poll. In a soul-search, the BJP review committee had attributed the party?s rout in the Lok Sabha election to the alienation of the Kurmis from the party.

Just a day before the BJP?s national executive began in Ranchi, Munda hastily convened a meeting of the Cabinet to recommend inclusion of ?telis? and ?kurmis? in the Scheduled Tribe list.