Hemant Soren: A reluctant politician who came out of his father’s shadow

New Delhi: To say politics is in his blood would be cliche. To add that he was reluctant would be an understatement.

But at the age of 30 in 2005, Hemant Soren – one who loves playing badminton, reading books and cycling – donned the politician’s attire, as his father – a towering tribal leader, Shibu Soren, who led the fight for a separate Jharkhand state – decided that his second son would fight from their stronghold Dumka.

It should have been a cake walk but senior Soren’s protege Stephen Marandi had other plans. Hemant lost in his first electoral outing.

The bespectacled Mechanical Engineering dropout withdrew to the background but four years later, he was again thrust into the limelight after a tragedy in the family – his elder brother and Shibu Soren's heir apparent Durga died suddenly.

At 48, he is now entering another stage with the Enforcement Directorate arresting him in a money laundering case that he says is bogus. He chose his father's close aide Champai Soren as his successor, after plans to install his wife Kalpana faced resistance from within the family.

For Hemant, who first became a Rajya Sabha MP in 2009 and then Deputy Chief Minister in the Arjun Munda-led BJP government next year, it was not an easy road. The JMM quit the NDA soon. He became the JMM president in 2013 and then Chief Minister for 17 months before losing power to be the Leader of Opposition, only to return as Chief Minister in 2019.

These years also saw Hemant slowly coming out of his father’s shadow by attempting to broadbase the otherwise predominantly a tribal party, the JMM. His years in the Opposition was his own tutorial in politics, as he put the Raghubar Das-led BJP government on the mat over a series of issues.

Reluctance gave way to decisiveness and he became the face of resistance, leading the charge against the BJP government’s attempt to allow diversion of agricultural land and taking away rights of tribals. He termed a Global Investors Summit in Ranchi a ‘Maha Chintan Shivir of Land Grabbers’.

An aggressive Soren meant people started taking him seriously and the 2019 Assembly vote saw the JMM getting the highest number of 30 seats in its history, as he reversed the 2019 Lok Sabha poll misfortune.

Employing new-age tools like data mining and social media to amplify JMM, he projected a progressive, forward thinking JMM, which was radically different from his father’s time while remaining true to the tribal cause.

He started his new innings as Chief Minister in 2019 by dropping sedition cases against over 10,000 tribals who were part of the Pathalgadi movement against changes in land laws.

He was steering the government with caution, but anticipated trouble. His close aides came under central agencies’ scanner while allies, especially the Congress, created trouble.

But by then, Hemant had the realisation that he “should play from a position of strength and not give in to major parties like the Congress or the BJP”, as a journalist who was closely watching Jharkhand politics told DH in 2022.

He took bold steps like refusing to give a Rajya Sabha ticket to Congress despite Sonia Gandhi’s intervention. He also broke ranks with the Opposition to support Droupadi Murmu as President.

At the same time, when the Opposition grouped as I.N.D.I.A he did not shy away. For Hemant, now it is another struggle.