Hemant Soren's Arrest And The Masterstroke That Stumped BJP

The events of January 31 were a long time in the making. What happened that day is a black chapter in the democratic history of this country. The plan for my arrest was laid well in advance.

Today, efforts are afoot to get the Adivasis to give up their Adivasi identity. They do not like seeing tribals, Dalits, backward classes, and minorities in the top positions of the country.

I have absolutely no regrets that I’ve been taken into custody by the ED. Enjoying power has never been our goal. But I want to make it clear that the JMM came into being to uphold the honour, respect, and self-respect of Jharkhand. Any attempt, political or legal, to trifle with that will get a befitting reply.

Many such clips from former chief minister Hemant Soren’s speech during the trust vote in the Jharkhand Assembly on February 5 have gone viral. The 24-minute speech targets the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in every sentence, and occasionally, the central agencies and the state governor as well.

The buzz in the political circles is that if there is one state where the INDIA bloc (locally consisting of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Congress, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal) looks indubitably strong, it is Jharkhand. Soren is the alliance leader. In the wake of the ED episode, he has emerged as a tribal leader of national stature. This will not be the first time that political pundits have noted a growth in Soren’s prominence. His standing among the tribals increased at a pan-India level all through the first three years of his tenure, with major moves like the introduction of the Sarna Religious Code, the 1932-based domicile bill, and the bill to increase OBC reservation.

The strategy deployed by Soren to counter the recent high-voltage political drama and crisis in Jharkhand has played an equal role in defining him as a tribal hero.

Several political upheavals were witnessed before and after Soren’s arrest by the ED on January 31 in the alleged land scam case. The unity demonstrated by the INDIA bloc in the face of this tumult has not only saved the government in the state but also strengthened the alliance for the upcoming elections.

And the one name that has been at the centre of the buzz around this whole episode is Soren.

Prior to his arrest, he met the governor and submitted his resignation and a letter of support from a majority of MLAs for the successor government led by Champai Soren. On February 2, Champai was sworn in as the CM and on February 5, his government passed the floor test with 47 votes out of 81 cast in its favour. Only 29 votes were cast against it.

Senior journalist Faisal Anurag believes that this is all a result of Hemant Soren’s tactical prowess. He told Outlook: “Soren has foiled the tactics behind his arrest. He has left no space for the BJP to carry out something like Operation Lotus [getting the ruling-alliance MLAs to switch sides]. He also hoodwinked both the governor and the BJP by leaking Kalpana Soren’s name as the CM candidate. I am sure the governor would have been flabbergasted seeing Champai Soren’s name for the post in the end, instead of Kalpana’s. For the first time, the BJP has been outwitted politically and strategically.”

Anurag believes that Soren has now emerged nationally as a leader of not just the tribals but also the Dalits, the OBCs, and the minorities. He said that the leader has consistently appealed to all four sections in his speeches and presented himself as their leader. The journalist added that the support of these sections in the last elections had been crucial for the formation of Soren’s coalition government, and therefore, he is focusing on the same vote-bank once again.

Although the political drama in Jharkhand peaked in the past two weeks, it actually began three years ago and features four main characters—the ED, the BJP, the governor, and Soren himself.

He is an accused in many cases, including charges related to holding an office of profit over allegedly allotting a stone mining lease to himself while serving as the CM. The case had resulted in a clash between then governor Ramesh Bais and the Soren government, with both sides attacking each other in statements during the governor’s 19-month tenure.

Subsequently, JMM leader and Soren’s aide Pankaj Mishra was arrested in another illegal mining case, and the CM was also interrogated by the ED. Jharkhand has been the highlight of the nationwide ED raids carried out during the last five years. The agency intensified the raids in the state during the past two years and interrogated dozens of influential figures, including ministers, IAS officers, and businessmen. Speculation over Soren’s possible arrest had been doing the rounds for quite a while. The INDIA bloc had already laid out a strategy to tackle the alleged land scam for which the JMM leader was arrested on January 31.This included the resignation of Gandey MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad on December 31, with media being given indications that Soren’s wife Kalpana could contest polls from the vacated seat in order to assume office as the new CM if her husband was arrested.

The long-simmering political temperature in the state finally hit boiling point on January 29, when an ED team reached Soren’s Delhi residence to interrogate him. Despite failing to find the leader, the team stayed at his house for hours, going through documents related to the probe and seizing a BMW car and cash worth lakhs of rupees. Late at night, Soren arrived in Ranchi, and the next day—January 30—held a two-round meeting with INDIA bloc MLAs to decide their future strategy.

As the news of Kalpana Soren being named the next CM started doing the rounds in local and national media, her husband was arrested the next day from the CM House, after hours of interrogation by the ED. However, the JMM leader had already laid the groundwork by then for keeping his party and government out of danger.

A journalist who covers the political beat for a newspaper of Jharkhand told Outlook that Soren had proved his mettle as a seasoned and shrewd leader in the entire episode. He said: “After getting the Gandey seat vacated and diverting the BJP’s attention towards Kalpana Soren, Hemant played a masterstroke by naming Champai Soren as the CM. The BJP kept focusing on the possibility that Kalpana would be named the CM and contest polls from Gandey. The party had even prepared a plan to give a tough fight to Kalpana from the seat. However, the JMM changed the whole game by handing over power to its most experienced leader.”

The journalist said that Hemant had played the Adivasi victim card and appealed to the community through his speech in the house, alleging that he was being targeted for being a tribal. He added that the JMM chief had largely been successful in convincing his voters that he was waging a lone battle against the BJP and the central government.

“The INDIA alliance has definitely grown stronger here following this entire chain of events, and even the Congress has now agreed that Hemant Soren will continue to be the coalition’s leader in Jharkhand. Therefore, it would be a challenge for the BJP to attract Adivasi votes now.”

(Translated by Kaushika Draavid and Iqbal Abhimanyu)