IEntertaining, suspenseful, rife with picnics and resort politics. Jharkhand has been making headlines for the past week, courtesy a sealed envelope sent by the Election Commission of India to Governor Ramesh Bais on August 25.
ECI It has reportedly given its opinion on whether Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren should be disqualified for alleged office of profit. BAS and ECI releases delay has fallen from the governor’s side almost The three-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government is in trouble. This is also one of the biggest challenges that Soren has faced in his relatively young political career.
The 47-year-old Soren, the veteran tribal leader and political heir to three-time CM Shibu Soren, has so far kept his wits about him and has managed to keep the JMM-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) swarm together amid fear . Speculations of poaching of ruling party MLAs by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have intensified.
For political watchers in Jharkhand, Soren’s decision to allot a mining lease to himself as the chief minister’s chair as well as the mining department was a big mistake, reflecting not only his immaturity, but his advisors’ ability. Also denotes disqualification that failed to indicate unfairness. Him.
But he also says that the way Soren has been handling the nerve game since the controversy shows that he is an equally shrewd politician who, despite growing uncertainty, has kept the BJP informed about his next move. I have guessed.
When speculation arose that three Congress MLAs were planning to defect, the Soren administration coordinated with the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal. to arrest, Later, he called on the leaders of the coalition. goat at Latratu Dam near Ranchi to calm his nerves, then took him out of the state to a resort in neighboring Chhattisgarh. This move of Soren has also surprised BJP.
Amidst all the political uncertainties, Soren’s focus on governance did not diminish. He has been inaugurating development projects and approving welfare proposals.
That’s why Hemant Soren is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
Coming into its own in 2019
Hemant Soren joined politics in 2009 after the death of his elder brother Durga, who was considered the political successor of Shibu Soren.
Before 2019, Hemant had enjoyed two short terms in power – first as Arjun Munda’s deputy CM in 2010 and then as CM in 2013. But he always remained in power. shadow His father Shibu Soren’s.
It was in 2019 when Soren really came into his own. He spearheaded the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance – plagued by internal differences and alliance complexities – to victory against the BJP in the assembly elections and successfully claimed his father’s legacy.
The victory was even more remarkable because just seven months earlier, the JMM had suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP won 11 of the state’s 14 parliamentary seats.
The 2019 elections, where the JMM-led coalition won 47 of the 81 assembly seats (the coalition’s tally reached 49 after two MLAs from Babulal Marandi’s party joined) also highlighted that How JMM, which had its stronghold mainly in the tribal area of Santhal Parganas. managed to expand its footprints even in non-tribal areas.
Since taking over as Chief Minister, Soren has taken several decisions for both tribals and non-tribals. He dropped the charges A case has been registered against the tribals by the BJP government for opposing the amendments to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 and the Santal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1949.
When the Covid pandemic broke out in March 2020, Jharkhand was the first state to do so. airlift migrant workers Stuck in Leh.
Though Soren is not considered like other non-BJP chief ministers, but over the years, he has slowly but steadily built good relations with Mamata Banerjee of Bengal and Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi.
The collusion with Banerjee may explain how following a tip-off, the West Bengal police jumped in and arrested three Congress MLAs, who were traveling in a car with Rs 50 lakh in cash last month. Or the arrest of Jharkhand-based lawyer Rajiv Kumar, representing the petitioner who filed the PIL against Soren in the mining lease case.
Read also: Jharkhand governor keeps guessing JMM as EC opinion casts shadow on Soren’s future
Soren knows how to mold
Congress leaders say Hemant Soren is a very clever politician who has learned to adapt according to the current situation. They cite a recent incident when Soren met Congress state in-charge Avinash Pandey, who had come to strategize the future strategy of the alliance following the recommendation of the Election Commission to disqualify the CM’s assembly membership. .
A senior Congress leader said Soren’s meeting with Pandey was unimaginable as he had become “arrogant” after taking over as CM in 2019 and could not reach out to his alliance partners as much as he should have.
“There was a communication gap, a deliberate distance…. CM did not keep our leaders in the government in the loop on many issues. But he understood that it is a difficult situation now and he cannot be seen as arrogant if he wants to keep the alliance together,” the Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.
The message became louder and clearer. The alliance will fight this challenge together.
A Congress leader said in a lighter vein that the leaders of the coalition did not meet as many meetings in the last three years as they did in the last one week.
Political watchers say that in his second term as CM, Soren has also worked to hone his PR skills. He makes it a point to meet journalists in Delhi over lunch every few months.
He has also learned the importance of social media from his contemporaries. He is active on Twitter, posting not only the schedule of his day, announcing all the major decisions but also taking his opponents.
It will be clear in the coming days whether Soren, a fourth-year dropout from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, will be able to break out of the political deadlock and become the first tribal leader to complete a full five-year term. cm. Or his early mistakes during his second term will haunt his government.
(edited by Prashant)