With the Congress – Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alliance overtaking good number of seats in Jharkhand assembly, Hemant Soren, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, has the best chance to form a government.
Hemant is the working president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and face of the grand alliance in the state at present. Son of former Union minister and tribal leader Shibu Soren and Roopi, Hemant Soren was born in Ramgarh district and did his schooling from Patna. He is believed to have enrolled in an engineering course, but left it mid-way.
While according to few claims, Soren has completed mechanical engineering, he submitted his educational qualification as intermediate pass when he filed nomination papers for both the 2005 and 2009 assembly polls.
He is married to Kalpana and has two sons. He has a younger brother, Basant, and a sister, Anjali
From flop debut till rise to power
Soren made his debut in electoral politics in the 2005 assembly polls but turned out to be a flop show when he contested from his family bastion Dumka. Though the natural successor to Shibu Soren was considered his brother, Durga, but his sudden death propelled Hemant Soren to the big league of the state’s politics.
Hemant had a brief stint as Rajya Sabha MP, serving from June 24, 2009 to January 4, 2010. In September, Hemant became the deputy chief minister of Jharkhand when Arjun Munda headed a coalition of the BJP/JMM/JDU/Ajsu party.
He was sworn in as Jharkhand’s youngest Chief Minister on July 15, 2013 with the support from Congress and RJD. The stint lasted till December 2014, when the BJP-led NDA stormed to power after the elections.
As a opposition leader, Hemant has been a vocal protester of the Direct Benefit Transfer in PDS and recently, voiced his concerns on how the scheme has caused tremendous suffering and injustice.
In April 2018, a JMM delegation led by Hemant Soren and his father Shibu Soren met the Hon’ble President Ramnath Kovind registering a strong protest on the dilution of the SC/ST by the Supreme Court and proposed amendments to the LARR Bill by the Jharkhand government.
During the current campaign, Hemant said that access to water, forests and land for tribals would be a key issue in these elections.
