Ranchi
While the feud in the JMM first family has been out in the open for quite some time now, JMM chief Shibu Soren had not acted against her badi bahu Sita Soren, who quit the party and joined the BJP which made her its Lok Sabha candidate from Dumka — the traditional bastion of the Sorens.
In doing so, the BJP even withdrew the candidature of its sitting MP Sunil Soren despite having already finalised and announced his name for the seat.
Having initially termed it a “family affair” and refused to take action, Shibu on Friday finally acted against Sita expelling her for 6 years. Sita had, however, resigned from the JMM to join the BJP. At the same time, Shibu also expelled for an identical period another party rebel Lobin Hembrom, the JMM MLA for Borio, who is fighting as an Independent from the Rajmahal Lok Sabha seat.
While Sita, the Jama MLA, had levelled allegations of being sidelined in the party, especially, after being ignored for a Cabinet berth (which went to the youngest son Basant) in the new Champai Soren government, the rise of the younger daughter in law Kalpana Soren following her husband and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s arrest only hastened her exit. She had even alleged foul play in her husband (eldest son of Shibu) Durga Soren’s death.
Citing reason for her expulsion, Shibu in his letter to Sita said, “…you had quit the party and joined the BJP to contest election. You have also been levelling baseless charges against our party leaders.”
Kalpana is fighting on the Gandey Assembly seat, by-election for which will be held on May 20 and which has been necessitated after its then MLA Sarfaraj Ahmed resigned from the seat in anticipation of Hemant’s arrest by the ED and the likelihood of Kalpana Soren’s ascendancy to the CM’s chair.
As for Lobin Hembrom, Shibu Soren’s close aide for the past several decades, he was apparently not comfortable after Hemant Soren took over the mantle. He has been in a rebellious avatar for more than a year now. He had been publicly criticising Hemant Soren’s functioning and his alleged weak-kneed action on issues like CNT Act, domicile among others.
Incidentally, Raj Mahal was the only Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand that the JMM somehow won in 2019.
Another, JMM MLA Chamra Linda too turned rebel and contested the Lohardaga Lok Sabha seat as an Independent candidate. This seat was ceded to the Congress. However, he was only suspended (on May 6), ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s visit on May 7. While polling for Lohardaga seat was held on May 13, elections in Dumka and Raj Mahal will be held on June 1.
Punitive actions against Sita and Lobin are also being seen as Shibu Soren’s bid to hold the flock together. Hence, to what extent this move is going to help the JMM and its allies keep its core tribal vote-bank intact remains to be seen.
No Interim Bail Yet For Hemant
In the Supreme Court on Friday, meanwhile, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta did not grant interim bail to Hemant and listed the matter for hearing on Tuesday next week (May 21) after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the ED, sought more time to respond to the plea. The apex court had a couple of days ago issued notice to the ED to file its response to Hemant’s challenge to his arrest by the agency.
