Champai Soren, who is set to succeed Hemant Soren as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, is known for the active part he played in the movement for the creation of a separate State of Jharkhand.
The ruling alliance in the State elected Mr. Champai, 67, as its leader soon after a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials reached Mr. Hemant’s residence on Wednesday for questioning in an alleged land scam case.
Mr. Champai is the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA from the Seraikela constituency. He has held the seat since 2005.
Mr. Champai studied till Class 10 and is said to be quite popular among people of the Kolhan area. He is also known as the “Tiger of Kolhan”. The Kolhan area is one of the five divisions in Jharkhand comprising the districts of East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Seraikela Kharsawan.
Currently Minister for Transport, Scheduled Caste & Backward Class Welfare, Mr. Champai is said to be close to Mr. Hemant’s father and JMM chief Shibu Soren, who is popularly known in Jharkhand as “Guruji”.
Earlier, the name of Kalpana Soren, wife of Mr. Hemant, was also doing the rounds for the post of Chief Minister.
However, a senior JMM leader told The Hindu on telephone that the Governor would not have been convinced with the name of Ms. Kalpana “who is not the member of any House of the State Legislature and as the State Assembly election is just 10 months away”.
“The Governor may have sought the opinion of the Election Commission on the issue and get the whole thing mired in controversy. So we, at our meeting today, decided to elect Champai Soren as our leader and to be the next Chief Minister of the State,” the JMM leader said.
Assembly election is due in the State in November 2024.
“We have chosen Champai Soren as the leader of the Legislature Party. We came to the Raj Bhavan to request the Governor for the oath ceremony,” Jharkhand Minister Banna Gupta told mediapersons.
Congress MLA Rajesh Thakur said, “CM Hemant Soren has decided to resign. Champai Soren has been chosen as the new leader of the Legislature Party. All the MLAs are with us.”
