"Congress Didn't Appoint Tribal Chief Minister Barring In...": Union Minister

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday alleged that the Congress has not appointed any tribal chief minister in the 21st century, barring the largely tribal-dominated northeastern states.

Mr Vaishnaw, the new Information and Broadcasting Minister, said in a post on X that the BJP had appointed four tribal leaders as chief ministers -- Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda (both Jharkhand), Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) and Mohan Majhi (Odisha).

Mr Majhi was elected as the Odisha chief minister at a meeting of newly elected BJP MLAs in the state on Tuesday.

"Something worth thinking about...Excluding the Northeastern states, which are largely tribal-dominated, Congress has appointed NO TRIBAL CM in the 21st century," Mr Vaishnaw said on X.

"And even in Assam, BJP made Shri Sarbananda Sonowal the CM, while Congress made no tribal," he said.

Mr Vaishnaw said the BJP also nominated Droupadi Murmu for the post of President and supported P A Sangma in the 2012 presidential election.

"Congress opposed both of them. This is a glimpse of who cares about tribal empowerment and who doesn't," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)