Ranchi
The Jharkhand government declared a one-day state mourning on Saturday to mark the death of Ramdas Soren, Minister of School Education, Literacy, and Registration. The National Flag will be flown at half-mast at all buildings in Jharkhand and no official function will take place.
The 62-year-old senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and a three-term MLA was airlifted to the hospital in the national capital from Jamshedpur after he fell in the bathroom of his residence on August 2. He had suffered a serious brain injury and blood clot and was on life support.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren took to X to express his condolence saying, “You should not have gone thus. Final Greetings (Antim Johar) dada.” Hemant, who is busy with his deceased father Shibu Soren’s rituals, deputed Welfare Minister Deepak Birua to offer his last respects on his behalf to the mortal remains of Ramdas here.
Ramdas, a Santhali, was born in a middle-class farmers’ family in East Singhbhum district’s Ghorabanda village on January 1, 1963. He started his political journey as a gram pradhan of the Ghorabanda panchayat. His rise in the JMM ranks started after he became Jamshedpur East president of the JMM in 1990.
He went on to became a Minister in the Hemant Cabinet after JMM veteran Champai Soren turned rebel and quit the Cabinet and party last year. He filled in the void created by Champai in Kolhan. Incidentally, Ramdas won from the Ghatshila seat for the third time in 2024 by defeating none other than Champai’s son Babulal Soren, whom the BJP had fielded.
Ramdas’s first Assembly contest resulted in a loss for him. He had moved to Ghatshila and started preparing to fight from there in the 2005 Assembly polls. However, with the seat going to JMM’s alliance partner Congress, he contested the polls as an independent candidate, and lost.
He contested again in the 2009 Assembly polls from Ghatshila and won, becoming an MLA for the first time. Though he lost the seat in 2014 to BJP’s Lakshman Tudu, he made a comeback in 2019, reclaiming the seat.
A doting father of three sons and a daughter, Ramdas was known for his simplicity and grassroots connection.
