Champai Soren Meets Amit Shah, To Join BJP Ahead of Jharkhand Polls, Confirms Himanta Biswa Sarma

Former Jharkhand chief minister and senior JMM leader Champai Soren is set join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on August 30, confirmed Assam Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The 67-year-old tribal leader met union home minister Amit Shah and Sarma was also present there. While sharing a photograph of the leaders on social media platform X, the Assam CM said, “Former Chief Minister of Jharkhand and a distinguished Adivasi leader of our country, @ChampaiSorenJi met Hon’ble Union Home Minister @AmitShahJi a short while ago. He will officially join the @BJP4India on 30th August in Ranchi.”

He earlier hinted that he might float a new political party in the run-up to the state assembly elections.

“I will not retire from politics. In the new chapter that I have started, I’ll strengthen the new organisation and if I find a good friend in the way, I’ll move ahead with that friendship to serve the people and state… Everything will become clear in a week…,” the senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader said shortly after he reached his ancestral village Jhilingora in Seraikela-Kharsawan district post midnight last week.

There were speculations that he might switch to the saffron camp. Lobin Hembrom, former JMM MLA who fought as a rebel candidate in the Lok Sabha election, had told a media organisation that Champai Soren is in touch with BJP leadership, adding that the time has come to oppose ‘parivarvaad’ or dynasty politics. Hembrom was recently disqualified as a JMM MLA under the anti-defection law.

This led to the speculation of Champai quitting the JMM. Slowly, the buzz snowballed into not just Champai, but Hembram as well as sitting minister Badal Patralekh too tipped to join the BJP in Delhi.

But he refuted the rumours of him joining the BJP. Rejecting the reports, Champai had said, “I don’t know what rumours are being spread. I don’t know what news is being run, so I cannot tell whether it’s true or not. I don’t know anything about it…Hum jahan par hain vahi par hain (I am here only)”.

What led Champai’s exit from JMM?

The JMM leader was anointed to the top post after Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Champai stepped down from the post on July 3 after Hemant Soren was granted bail by Jharkhand High Court.

He was unhappy with the way he was unceremoniously removed from the Chief Minister’s post to make way for Hemant Soren to become CM again.

He complained in close quarters that he felt “insulted” by the way he was removed, say sources. He is a tribal leader who had always been a perpetual “chief minister-in-waiting”. He is an Adivasi by birth and a loyalist of the Soren family.

WHO IS CHAMPAI SOREN?

Champai has earned the sobriquet “Jharkhand’s Tiger” for his contribution to the long fight for the creation of a separate state in the 1990s. Jharkhand was created from the southern part of Bihar in 2000.

A matriculate from a government school, he started his political career by getting elected as an independent MLA through a by-election from the Saraikela seat in undivided Bihar in 1991.

He served as a cabinet minister in the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda between September 2010 to January 2013.

When Hemant Soren formed his second government in the state in 2019, Champai Soren became the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies and Transport.