Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren on Wednesday announced to float a new political party ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
Soren said he is open to alliance with any party. The announcement comes amid speculations of the former CM joining BJP.
“I had mentioned three options – retirement, organisation or friend. I will not retire; I will strengthen the party, a new party and if I meet a good friend on the way, then will move ahead with them,” Champai Soren said.
In a rally in his ancestral village Saraikela in Jharkhand, he said, "I have embarked on a mission to deliver justice to the oppressed, Dalits, tribals, and the poor of Jharkhand. My vision is to make the state an ideal one, and i am are working towards this goal. I am confident that the rural communities are eagerly awaiting for the next steps and I am sure i will receive full support."
Champai Soren was chosen as the Jharkhand Chief Minister after Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED.
The 67-year-old tribal leader has earned the nickname Jharkhand's Tiger for his contribution to the fight to create a separate state in the 1990s. Jharkhand was carved out of the southern part of Bihar in 2000.
"No one from JMM contacted me. This is the land of Jharkhand...I have struggled since my student life. I participated in the agitation for a separate Jharkhand state under the leadership of party supremo Shibu Soren," Champai Soren said.
"I posted what I felt was proper. The entire country is aware of what I thought," he said, referring to his post on X on August 18.
Amid speculations that he might join the BJP, the veteran politician had said he experienced bitter humiliation as chief minister, which compelled him to seek an alternative path. In a tweet, he said after so much insult and contempt, he was forced to look for an alternative path.
He said he was appointed as chief minister on January 31, after an unprecedented turn of events. "From the first day of my tenure to the last day (July 3), I discharged my duties towards the state with full devotion and dedication."
Champai Soren said that for the first time in his spotless political journey of the last four decades, he was broken from within.
He said he had three options. "First, to retire from politics, second, to form my own separate organization and third, if I find a companion on this path, then to travel further with him," he added.
