SOREN QUEERS PITCH FOR BJP

On July 3, less than a week after walking out of Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren staked claim to form the government in Jharkhand for the third time.

- Amitabh Srivastava

This was after fellow party leader Champai Soren resigned as chief minister, barely 152 days after he had ascended to the post. Earlier in the day, MLAs of the state’s ruling alliance (which includes the JMM, Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal) had elected Hemant as their leader. With just months to go before the state election scheduled for later this year, Hemant’s release from custody in a land scam and money-laundering case, and subsequent return to power, has come as a shot in the arm for the JMM. But it has complicated the narrative for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had been projecting the arrest as a fallout of Hemant’s corruption—an allegation the JMM and its allies have denied. On its part, the JMM has accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of targeting Opposition parties and being anti-tribal—as a Santhal and a CM who was targeted, Hemant offers himself as an exemplar of both.

Hemant Soren is positioning himself as a champion of tribal rights and a victim of political conspiracy

The JMM leader had been incarcerated since January 31 (though he was allowed to attend his uncle’s funeral in May), after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, which registered a case against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.