New Delhi: Champai Soren, incumbent Transport Minister, was named as Jharkhand's next chief minister, replacing Hemant Soren.
This comes as Hemant Soren tendered his resignation as the chief minister after about seven hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to a land scam.
“Hemant Soren has resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has proposed the name of senior JMM leader Champai Soren as the new CM,” state Congress president Rajesh Thakur said.
Earlier, there were speculations that Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana’s name could be proposed as the new CM.
Who Is Champai Soren?
- Senior leader Champai Soren is currently cabinet minister of transport, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes welfare, and also the Vice-President of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
- Soren has been a legislator from Serikela assembly constituency for more than three decades since 1991 and is known to be a loyalist of JMM supremo Shibu Soren.
- Born in November 1956 at Jilinggora village in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharsawan district, Soren has been a prominent social service advocate.
- Soren is a matriculate and father of seven children. He is the son of a farmer and is not related to the Hemant Soren family.
- Soren played a crucial role in the movement for the creation of a separate state of Jharkhand from Bihar. He soon became famous as the 'Jharkhand Tiger'.
- The JMM leader was first elected to the assembly in 2005 when he defeated BJP's Lakshman Tudu with less than 1000 votes.
- Since 2005, Soren has been representing the Seraikella seat in the Assembly.
- He served as a Cabinet Minister in Arjun Munda-led BJP government in 2010.
- Champai Soren served as the Cabinet Minister for Science and Technology, Labour and Housing from September 2010 to January 2013.
- In the 2019 assembly election, Champai secured 1,11,554 votes against BJP's Ganesh Mahali, who got just 95,887 votes.
What Happened To Hemant Soren?
Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Ranchi, and a camp jail has been set up in Dayanand Nagar for his detention.
He resigned on Wednesday following a seven-hour grilling by the Enforcement Directorate.
The ED's questioning came after a tumultuous episode in Jharkhand, where the BJP opposition claimed that the chief minister was "evading" the investigation agency. The BJP even circulated "missing" posters with a Rs 11,000 reward for credible information about Hemant Soren.
The chaos ensued when the federal agency attempted to question Hemant Soren at his Delhi home on Monday but claimed they were unable to locate the JMM leader.
Following that, the ED raided his Delhi home, seizing his BMW car and Rs 36 lakh in cash on the basis of alleged "incriminating evidence".