Hemant Soren: From a reluctant politician to Jharkhand CM

Hemant went with Droupadi Murmu to the dismay of the Opposition

When the BJP-led NDA picked Droupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate, it was said that the decision was made keeping in mind the tribal vote factor for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

It was a smart move and the decision put Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in an incredible dilemma: Should he support Murmu, a tribal leader and former Jharkhand governor, or the Opposition camp candidate, Yashwant Sinha? Hemant went with Murmu to the dismay of the Opposition.

His allies felt that the CM had taken the decision under compulsion as Droupadi was a tribal.

For his party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Droupadi’s elevation as President could undermine the status of Shibu Soren, who is Hemant’s father, as the foremost Santhal leader in the country.

While Hemant knew about these issues, he also remembered Droupadi, despite being BJP-appointed, had returned the Bills that went against tribals’ interest when she was in the Jharkhand government.

“It was not just politics or vote bank but a moral question for Hemant,” a journalist, who closely watches Jharkhand politics, told DH.

Life and politics are about dilemmas like this, and Hemant made his choice.

He has come a long way since he made his political debut in 2005 as a bespectacled 30-year-old.

His father Shibu Soren—a towering tribal leader who led the fight for a separate Jharkhand state—asked him to contest from their stronghold, Dumka.

Young Hemant, an engineering dropout, would have been content to pursue his hobbies—playing badminton, reading books and cycling—but reluctantly did as told. It should have been a cakewalk, but senior Soren’s protege Stephen Marandi had other plans and Hemant lost. Hemant receded to the background after the shattering loss.

But four years later, he was again thrust into the limelight after a tragedy claimed the lives of his elder brother and heir apparent, Durga.

Now, at 46, Hemant is the Chief Minister again, his second stint in the hot seat after 2013 when he held power for a brief 17 months. Reluctance has now given way to decisiveness, say his close aides.

The years between 2009—when he became a Rajya Sabha MP and then Deputy Chief Minister in the Arjun Munda-led BJP government next year—and 2019 are the years that could be said to have forged Hemant. They were tough years.

Hemant slowly came out of his father’s shadow, as he attempted to broad base the JMM, which is predominantly a tribal party.

As a leader of the Opposition, he took on the Raghubar Das-led BJP government over a series of issues. He became the face of resistance, as he led the state government’s attempt to change laws—Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act—to allow the diversion of agricultural land for other purposes.

People started taking him seriously, and the 2019 Assembly vote was validation of this, with the JMM bagging its highest-ever tally of 30 seats. This was despite the BJP decimating the JMM in the Lok Sabha polls months before.

Hemant employed new-age tools like data mining and social media to amplify JMM and to project a progressive, forward-thinking party, which was radically different from his father’s time.

He created a stir in his new innings as chief minister by dropping sedition cases against over 10,000 tribals who were part of the Pathalgadi movement against changes in land laws.

For the next couple of years, he was cautious, but trouble eventually came, as it happens these days, in the form of central agencies. His close aides came under the scanner over allegations of money laundering and illegal mining; raids followed.

There was no case against him, but an administrative decision to allot a mining lease to himself landed him in trouble, as the Election Commission took up a complaint of the office of profit against him.

Being part of a coalition government was not easy either. Congress gave him a hard time. 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”, the journalist told DH.

He sent a signal during the Rajya Sabha elections when he chose not to leave the single seat his alliance could win to the Congress. Despite an hour-long discussion with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he didn’t budge.

And he broke with the Opposition over Droupadi as well.

As the central agencies piled on the pressure, there were murmurs that he may be cosying up to the ruling BJP. People sought to read between the lines. But his aides had a message: don’t read too much. Under the calm demeanour, they said, Hemant has a steely resolve.