Jharkhand excise constable recruitment drive held for 'votes', says Shivraj

Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan criticized the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government, accusing it of organizing the excise constable recruitment drive purely for electoral gains. The recruitment drive, which tragically claimed 12 lives, involved a 10-kilometer run that Chouhan claimed was done without proper safety measures.

Chouhan, BJP's election in-charge for Jharkhand, stated, "With the election approaching, the Chief Minister, who had promised five lakh jobs, made the youths run for 10 km, resulting in deaths." He further alleged that the recruitment was a pre-election tactic to win votes from young people, despite the government's awareness that fulfilling job promises was impossible.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), however, pointed out that the recruitment rule was amended in 2016 when the BJP held power, requiring candidates to run 1.6 km in six minutes.

Following the deaths, Chief Minister Hemant Soren suspended the recruitment drive. The remaining part of the recruitment process for 1.14 lakh candidates is set to resume on September 10 with revised safety norms.