Ranchi, February 6, 2024: A major political storm has been brewing in Jharkhand over the past week centered around tribal leader and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Soren, who used to head the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party, has utilized his position as a prominent Scheduled Tribe (ST) member to strongly condemn the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the floor of the state Assembly.
The sequence of events was set off on January 31st when Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case connected to illegal land deals during his 2013-14 term as CM. He was remanded to five days of ED custody by a court order on February 2, 2024. Shortly after tendering his resignation as Chief Minister to the Governor that day, Soren was taken into the probe agency’s custody.
In Soren’s absence, the JMM-led coalition swiftly nominated senior minister Champai Soren to replace him as CM. The new government, supported by allies Congress and RJD, successfully cleared a trust vote in the 81-member Assembly on February 5th, securing 47 votes. Hemant Soren, who was brought from ED custody in Raipur to participate in the session, gave an emotionally charged speech claiming his arrest was part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Centre against him.
Hemant Soren’s Political Attacks in Assembly
During his speech in the trust vote, Soren unleashed a series of attacks against the BJP. He questioned why the party had ignored the tribals, Dalits and the poor during its eight years in power at the Centre. Playing up his ST status, he accused the BJP of being blatantly “anti-tribal” in light of his arrest.
Soren also pledged to vehemently struggle against the charges levelled against him by the ED, dismissing them as frivolous and baseless. This combative approach of leveraging his image as a firebrand tribal leader could reinvigorate the JMM’s prospects in the 2024 general elections and state assembly polls, analysts observe. It might help rally the 28% tribal population of Jharkhand behind the party.
The BJP, meanwhile, has demanded Soren’s resignation as an MLA and stridently criticized his leadership, drawing links to cash seizures from properties of Congress leaders last week.
ED Investigation Into Alleged Land Allotment Irregularities
The ED case against Soren stems from alleged irregularities in land allotments made during his first stint as CM between 2013-2014. As per allegations, Soren misused his position to allot a stone mining lease to himself in 2021 under a different identity while holding the mining portfolio. The agency has claimed to have already unearthed financial improprieties worth ₹100 crore so far.
In his defense, Soren has dismissed the charges as politically motivated. He has claimed that the state Governor himself was involved in hatching the alleged conspiracy behind his sudden arrest. Soren also challenged the BJP to conclusively prove the corruption allegations against him, vowing to retire from politics permanently if found guilty.
The JMM has said it will file a criminal defamation case against BJP’s Jharkhand chief Deepak Prakash for claiming Soren was “absconding” when he had only gone to attend the crucial trust vote session in the Assembly. Meanwhile, the BJP has also drawn suspicious links between Soren and the recent cash seizures of ₹17 crore from premises connected to a Congress MP in Jharkhand last week17.
Reactions to The Political Drama
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also symbolically met with Soren’s wife after his hard-fought floor test victory in the Assembly. Several key opposition leaders have thrown their support behind Soren as well, hailing the ex-CM as a “fighter” with immense grit.
The coming days will determine the ultimate political and legal fate of Hemant Soren as investigative proceedings against him run their course amidst swirling uncertainty. But the embattled JMM leader has already signaled that he remains undeterred in his commitment to contest the charges levied by agencies like the ED and the BJP.
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