Former Jharkhand CM Champai Soren joins BJP ahead of assembly elections

Former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Ranchi ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

Soren along with a large number of his supporters joined the BJP in presence of Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at a ceremony in Ranchi.

“I was embarrassed, and that’s why I had decided to retire (from politics). However, because of love and support of people of Jharkhand, I decided to not to retire from politics. I have seen the struggle during the ‘Jharkhand andolan’,” Soren said after joining the BJP.

“I thought that I will launch a new party or join another party, but I will never stay in that organisation where I was embarrassed. Later, I decided to join a party (BJP) to continue serving the people of Jharkhand,” he added.

Soren, once a close aide of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha founder Shibu Soren, quit his previous party on Wednesday. In his letter to Shibu Soren, the 67-year-old leader said,”I have never ever imagined in my dreams that I would quit JMM, a party which is like a family to me… The turn of events of the past forced me to take this decision with much pain…I am pained to say that the party has deviated from its principle.”

Champai Soren’s induction into BJP is seen as a shot in the arm of the saffron party, looking to establish a foothold in the tribal belt of Jharkhand, where Scheduled Tribes make up about 26 per cent of the electorate.

Champai served as CM in Hemant Soren’s absence

When Hemant Soren was forced to resign as chief minister ahead of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31, Champai Soren was roped in as the CM.

He served as the CM till the time Soren was in jail. After Hemant Soren was granted bail on June 28, the senior leader had to step down to make way for the JMM working president.

“After so much humiliation, I was forced to look for an alternative path…Can there be anything more humiliating in a democracy than having a chief minister’s programme cancelled by another person? During the meeting (legislative party meeting on July 3), I was asked to resign,” Champai Soren had said.

“But all he (referring to Chief Minister Hemant Soren without naming him) seemed interested in was the chair. I felt as though I had no existence, no presence in the party to which I had dedicated my entire life,” he added.