The dramatic arrest of Hemant Soren on February 1, his five-month ordeal in judicial custody during the 18th Lok Sabha elections, and his release from the prison upon being granted bail by the Jharkhand high court on June 28, have proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Jharkhand chief minister in the run up to the assembly elections due late this year.
In its overdrive to nail its opponents ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party allegedly set off the Enforcement Directorate against the Jharkhand CM. In January, the ED arrested him after seven hours of questioning in connection with alleged money laundering and illegally possessing 8.36 acres of land in Ranchi.
But the high court’s observation that “there was no evidence directly linking Soren to the possession of land in question”, has gone some way towards denting the motives of the ruling establishment against the son of the Santhal leader Shibu Soren.
Expectedly, Hemant Soren who had demitted the office to his loyalist Champai Soren, took oath as the CM for the second time after 2019 assembly elections. He won the trust vote in the Jharkhand assembly on July 8 with 45 MLAs on his side in the 81-member House. The BJP has literally cut a sorry figure in the state that was carved out from Bihar in 2000.
Now, Hemant has got Champai in his cabinet to avoid resentment in his party, as well as the people. Champai, who is committed to the Soren family, was believed to be initially reluctant to leave the CM’s post ahead of the elections. However, with the help of the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which are his allies, Hemant is learned to have eventually persuaded Champai to be in his council of ministers.
Also read: With JMM Wind Beneath Her Wings, Kalpana Soren Takes Off
How JMM survived
In the course of Hemant’s incarceration, the BJP’s central leadership had reportedly tried its best to split the JMM. The corridors of power in Ranchi were full with the talks of crores of rupees being offered to JMM and Congress MLAs for switching over to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) MLAs managed to remain behind Hemant Soren in this adverse situation.
And, like Sunita Kejriwal who campaigned for the Aam Aadmi Party while her husband and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, was still in judicial custody, Hemant’s wife Kalpana Soren too hit the streets, joining the cadres of the JMM and INDIA bloc parties from Ranchi to Delhi.
Kalpana’s stellar presence paid off. INDIA parties won five seats in 2024 against two in 2019 and the BJP went down by three seats in the state which has, altogether, 14 Lok Sabha seats. That Hemant Soren’s incarceration drew huge sympathy from tribal communities became evident from the fact that the BJP’s tribal face and former Jharkhand CM, Arjun Munda, lost to the Congress’s Kalicharan Munda by about 1.50 lakh votes in the Khunti constituency.
In a bid to consolidate his hold among the Adivasis who make up for 26.50% of Jharkhand’s population, Hemant has appointed five faces from the tribal communities in his 12-member cabinet. He has three ministers from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) which account for 45% of the state’s population, and two and one from among Muslims and communities of the Scheduled Caste list who account for 16% and 10% of the same respectively. The Ranchi-based journalist Umapad Mahato described the JMM led ministry as a “balanced one” which can stand up against the BJP-led NDA which is looking for a divided house in the run up to the assembly elections now.
Apart from the Santhal Pargana which is considered as the stronghold of the Santhals, the JMM has also managed to endear itself to the Munda and Ho tribes in the Chhotanagpur and Kolhan regions of the state.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author, media educator and independent researcher in folklore.
