Accidental heir Hemant Soren comes out of Shibu’s shadow

Ranchi: While only time will tell if Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) — and the Congress-led mahagathbandhan — manages to get more than the two seats it won in the last Lok Sabha elections, when the Modi wave swept 12 of the 14 constituencies in the state, one thing is certain: Hemant Soren, at 43, has come of age and emerged as the most astute opposition leader in Jharkhand.
With his father, tribal icon and JMM president, Shibu Soren (74) retreating from public view due to age and poor health, Hemant, the party’s working president, took it on himself to spearhead the opposition’s election strategy ever since BJP came to power in the state in the end of 2014. The assembly elections were a setback for Hemant personally as he contested from two seats, but lost from his father’s bastion of Dumka.
In the 54 months since, Hemant led the opposition’s protests against all controversial decisions taken by the Raghubar Das government. He led the stir against the proposed amendments to the pro-tribal tenancy laws, extended support to 70,000-odd temporary teachers pushing for job regularization, criticised the state government for taking over retail liquor sales and merger of government schools.
In January, he was at the forefront as the talks with other opposition parties — Congress, JVM-P and RJD — as Jharkhand became the first state where the plans to form a mahagathbandhan materialized. Apart from stitching up the alliance, Soren bargained hard and managed to get four Lok Sabha seats, including all three in the tribal-dominated Santhal Pargana, for JMM even as its other three partners bickered over a seat or two. He even hand-picked candidates for three seats — Shibu’s nomination from Dumka was a given.
While Hemant agreed to contest the Lok Sabha polls under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, he extracted his pound of flesh as Congress gave in to JMM’s demand and agreed to contest the assembly elections, scheduled to take place in the end of this year, as the tribal party’s junior partner.
While many political observers see Hemant as another dynast in state politics, his journey to prominence has not been easy. His debut in electoral politics in 2005 was a disaster and Shibu’s decision to field his reluctant 29-year-old son from the familiar turf of Dumka led to a rebellion within the party. Shibu’s long-term associate Stephen Marandi left JMM, contested Dumka as an independent, and won. The results were reversed four years later: Soren junior won and Marandi, a six-time MLA from Dumka, finished third.
Hemant was pushed into the JMM senior leadership in 2009 after the sudden death of his elder brother Durga, who was seen as the natural inheritor of Shibu’s legacy. In the decade since, he has served as a Rajya Sabha MP, deputy CM and he also became the state’s youngest CM in 2013.
Now, as the leader of the opposition in the assembly, Hemant is fulfilling his responsibilities for the mahagathbandhan. “He is there everywhere. He is working overtime not only for JMM candidates, but equally doing his bit for the mahagathbandhan nominees. While he is holding three to four rallies every day for all candidates and attending meetings addressed by mahagathbandhan star campaigners, he hasn’t found time to campaign for Guruji,” says JMM general secretary Vinod Pandey.
Hemant is now focusing on inducting fresh blood into his party. “The purpose of Hemant’s months-long Sangharsh Yatra earlier this year was to recreate the party in a new avatar. While we still fight for jal, jungle and jameen, but with the kind of issues we raised, the idea was to position the party for both tribal and urban voters,” Pandey adds.
Former chairperson of State Women’s Commission and JMM leader Mahua Majhi agrees. “If you recall the 2014 assembly polls, Hemant made it a point to introduce candidates who are educated, experienced and young. So you now see a foreign-educated Kunal Sarangi as MLA of Bahragora while educationist Ashok Nag represents Kanke,” she says.
The logical progression for Hemant will now be to cement his position at a national level. In January, he was among the leaders who attended the massive rally called by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to forge an alliance at the national level and he has fielded his sister Anjali from the Mayurbhanj seat in Odisha.
But is Hemant ready to take on Shibu’s mantle? Littipara MLA Simon Marandi, who had left JMM in 2005 after accusing Shibu of favouring his son, says: “While Guruji will always be Guruji, Hemant has come of age.” Marandi, who was brought back to JMM by Hemant in 2014, says. Pandey agrees: “Till Guruji is around, he is irreplaceable in Dumka. But for the rest of the seats, it was Hemant’s call,” said Pandey.
Hemant himself believes he is prepared for the responsibility. “Being Guruji’s son, I have grown up seeing his struggle for Jharkhand and cause of tribals, poor and oppressed. It is up to others to evaluate what they think of me, but all that I want to say that we (JMM and I) will not let his struggle and hopes go wasted,” Hemant says.