New Delhi/Ranchi
Just months to go for the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, Champai Soren — JMM’s old guard and a close aide of party patriarch Shibu Soren — set the tongues wagging on Sunday as he arrived in the national capital adding fuel to speculations about his possible defection to the BJP. More so, since his bio on the X handle also had JMM missing.
The 67-year-old — popularly known as the ‘Kolhan Tiger’ – is currently the Water Resources and Higher & Technical Education Minister in the Hemant Soren government. Kolhan is one of the five administrative divisions of Jharkhand and Champai wields considerable influence in the region.
The names of JMM MLAs namely Dashrath Gagrai, Chamra Linda, Samir Mohanty, expelled MLA Lobin Hembrom, and Ramdas Soren also did the round as possible defectors.
But soon after arriving at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Champai asserted that he was visiting the national capital for “personal work” and to meet his daughter who lives there. On his possible switchover to the BJP, he said, “I am where I am.” Champai also refuted claims that he met BJP’s Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikary in Kolkata. However, sources said he has been in touch with BJPs incharge in Jharkhand Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Among the MLAs, Lobin Hembrom, who rebelled against Hemant and even fought the Lok Sabha polls as an Independent from Raj Mahal ST seat, has minced no words in being in touch with the BJP but Samir Mohanty denied the possibility of his switchover.
Reacting indirectly without taking any names, Chief Minister Hemant Soren, while addressing a gathering at an official function, said homes and parties are being broken by the use of money power. “Money is such a thing that it doesn’t take time for MLAs and leaders to switch allegiances,” he said and alleged the Election Commission of India is no longer a Constitutional institution and has turned into an institution of the BJP
The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly has 28 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. In 2019, the JMM registered a landslide win on them. It won 25 of the 28 ST seats. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, all the five ST seats were won by the JMM and the Congress giving a major setback to the BJP that was aiming to win all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand.
The alliance was successful in projecting tribal Hemant as a “victim” of BJP’s “vendetta politics” and Adivasis took it as an act of oppression of a fellow Adivasi and the ST community on the whole. The BJP’s wipe-out on tribal seats in 2024 was in sharp contrast to 2019 when it had won four of the five ST seats.
In the event of Champai’s switchover, it will surely come as a big blow to the JMM in the Kolhan region as a majority of the MLAs from the region could also follow him. Following Champai’s removal, the BJP not only accused Hemant of removing a senior tribal leader for the sake of dynastic politics but also being greedy for power. At the same time, it was full of praise for Champai whom it applauded for running the government efficiently and called him a bigger tribal leader than Hemant.
However, Champai’s entry into the BJP fold could ruffle feathers of party loyalists and old guards, and complicate matters internally. Though the BJP is unlikely to name its Chief Ministerial candidate in the run-up to the poll, it is widely perceived that it will be former CM and State BJP president Babulal Marandi, who rejoined the BJP after merging his JVM (P). In the event of the BJP returning to power, what will be the role of Champai? Will the JMM MLAs who follow Champai into the BJP be given tickets from their turfs at the cost of BJP loyalists? These are issues that the BJP brass would need to sort out first.
Champai is expected to meet BJP leaders during his Delhi stay and it comes following his meeting with former JMM legislator Lobin Hembrom. Champai played down the meeting with Hembrom as a routine discussion. Hembrom was recently disqualified as a JMM MLA under the anti-defection law.
Champai is said to be cut-up with Hemant after the latter unceremoniously removed him to take charge as the Chief Minister again following the grant of bail in a money laundering case allegedly linked to a land scam.
With the ED arresting Hemant on January 31, he made the “trusted” Champai the Chief Minister. For the next five months, Champai ran the show having assumed the Chief Ministership on February 2. In every public address thereafter, Champai never failed to mention the “injustice” meted out to Hemant through a “conspiracy”.
However, after Hemant secured bail and returned, differences between the two erupted. Sources said, soon after Hemant’s return from jail, there were back-to-back postponement of two public events wherein Champai Soren, as the Chief Minister, was scheduled to handover recruitment letters to teachers. The Deputy Commissioners were directly told to postpone the events and Champai came to know about the postponement later, thereby, widening the chasm between the two, they added.
An “upset” Champai “reluctantly” resigned on July 3 as the Chief Minister to pave way for Hemant’s return at the helm for the third time on July 4. Champai contended that the move did not send the right signals to the masses and wanted the Assembly elections to be fought under him as CM.
