Jharkhand Assembly election 2024: Major faces in the ‘family-dominated’ polls

It seems the Jharkhand Assembly elections 2024, set to be held in two phases next month, will be a family affair, with the members of a few political families set to contest some major seats. Many old faces will be back, while some relatively newer faces have been emerging in state politics too. 

On the one hand, we have Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren defending their Barhait and Gandey constituencies, respectively, while Hemant’s brother Basant will contest from Dumka for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

Sons of senior JMM leaders Joba Majhi and Nalin Soren, who were elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year, have been given tickets for their respective Assembly seats, Manoharpur and Shikaripara.

On the other hand, the BJP, very much unlike its reputation, is facing allegations of “dynastic politics” as it has given tickets to near relatives of former chief ministers, Union ministers, and MPs, prompting many party leaders, including sitting MLAs, to quit and either join the JMM or decide to contest as Independents.

While recent JMM turncoat and former chief minister Champai Soren will contest from Saraikela on a BJP ticket, so will his son Babulal Soren, from Ghatsila. Hemant’s sister-in-law Sita Soren has been nominated from Jamtara.

Another former CM Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu will contest the Jamshedpur East seat, while yet another former CM Arjun Munda’s wife Meera Munda has got the party ticket for Potka.

Here is a brief profile of the major faces in the elections to the 81-seat Jharkhand Assembly this time.

Also read: Jharkhand Assembly polls 2024: 5 key issues dominating the election

1. Hemant Soren (JMM), Barhait

Hemant has won the Barhait seat two elections on a trot — in 2014 and 2019. But he has had a career — as well as a year — of ups and downs.

Earlier this year, he was arrested by the ED on money-laundering charges in connection with a land deal and is currently out on bail. While the BJP has been playing up his “corruption”, he has blamed the former ally of targeting him unfairly like many other Opposition leaders.

Soren started serving in the Jharkhand government as the deputy chief minister in the BJP-led Arjun Munda government from 2010 to 2012, after which the government collapsed and president’s rule was imposed. At 38, he took charge of Jharkhand as its youngest chief minister in 2013, this time with the support of the Congress and the RJD.

However, his first stint as chief minister was short-lived as the BJP seized power in 2014, and Raghubar Das became chief minister. As the LoP in the Assembly, he led a massive agitation in 2016, when the BJP-led government tried to amend the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act to allow leasing out of tribal land for non-agricultural purposes.

He roared back to power in 2019, again with the support of Congress and RJD, with JMM alone winning 30 seats, its highest tally ever in the 81-member House. And then came the arrest this year.

Hemant’s vote share in Barhait has progressively gone up in the past two elections. But as he faces corruption charges, anti-incumbency, and a setback after losing senior party leader Champai Soren to the BJP, he also enjoys a degree of sympathy over his perceived victimisation. It will be interesting to watch how things unfold for him this election.

2. Kalpana Soren (JMM), Gandey

Kalpana stormed into politics after Hemant’s arrest in January. And since then, she has become a significant figure in the state politics, first winning the Gandey bypolls in June and now becoming a leading JMM face in the electoral campaigns.

Kalpana is fluent in Hindi and English and has engineering and MBA degrees. She has already been noticed for her engaging speeches, even when she spoke confidently at an Opposition rally in Delhi before the Lok Sabha elections.

She campaigned for the Opposition in the Lok Sabha polls, and shortly after that won the Gandey bypolls by 26,000 votes. As she contests to retain the seat, the JMM-Congress alliance is banking on her connect with female voters, who number 1.29 crore of the 2.6 crore voter population in the state.

Kalpana has held 70 public meetings across Jharkhand for the Maiyan Samman Yojna, a direct cash-transfer scheme for women, and is slated to address many more. Can she bag the female votes for the JMM and turn out to be its trump card? The results will tell.

Also read: Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls: It's virtually a do-or-die battle for INDIA Bloc

3. Champai Soren (BJP), Saraikela

The “Tiger of Jharkhand”, who has won the Saraikela seat six times for the JMM, will fight to retain it for the BJP this time.

Champai, who was a major player in Jharkhand’s statehood struggle alongside Hemant’s father Shibu Soren, briefly became the chief minister in Hemant’s absence earlier this year but the faithful foot soldier felt offended when he was unceremoniously asked to vacate the seat for Hemant when the latter was released on bail in June. And hence came his switch to the BJP.

Champai, who is known to have major support in the tribal belts of Jharkhand, can be a game-changer for the BJP, which has been struggling to dent the JMM’s tribal vote base. In the general polls held earlier this year, the BJP-led NDA won all but the five Lok Sabha seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, which went to the INDIA bloc — two to Congress and three to JMM.

If Champai’s switch can split the tribal votes somewhat, BJP stands a good chance of reclaiming Jharkhand. His importance for the BJP is evident from the fact that his son Babulal Soren has also been given the ticket from Ghatsila, which the JMM was reportedly reluctant to do.

Therefore, this election will be an acid test for Champai, as he has to prove his relevance in Jharkhand politics.

4. Babulal Marandi (BJP), Dhanwar

Schoolteacher-turned-politician Babulal Marandi was Jharkhand’s first chief minister who defeated JMM founder Shibu Soren from his then citadel of Dumka in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.

As the BJP’s Jharkhand unit chief, he led the party to victories in 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand region in that year. That win catapulted Marandi to national politics and he was part of the Union Council of Ministers from what was then undivided Bihar.

Under his tenure as the Jharkhand chief minister from 2000 to 2003, when he was forced to make way for Arjun Munda, several development initiatives were introduced for the tribal-dominated state. Even in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, he managed to win the Kodarma seat while all other NDA sitting MPs from Jharkhand lost.

However, his rift with the BJP kept growing and he ultimately parted ways with the party in 2006 and floated the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM). Marandi contested the Lok Sabha elections from Kodarma again in 2009, and retained the seat, but this time for JVM.

However, the JVM failed to outshine the Narendra Modi wave of 2014, with the party failing to win any seat in the state. The BJP, on the other hand, won 12 of the 14 seats; BJP’s Ravindra Kumar Ray defeated him in Koderma.

However, the BJP, too, realised the mutual dependence in the 2019 Assembly elections, in which its score of tribal seats dropped from 11 to two, while the JMM-led alliance won 25 of the 28 ST-reserved seats. Months after this poll debacle, the BJP mended its ties with Marandi, and in February 2020, he merged JVM with the saffron party.

In 2022, Marandi was reinstated as the head of the BJP state unit.

The BJP, which lost only the five ST-reserved seats to the JMM-Congress combine in the last Lok Sabha polls, will be looking at the Santhal leader, as well as Champai, to make some magic in the tribal belt. And just like Champai, Marandi also has to prove that he retains his relevance in the state politics.

Also read: Champai’s rebellion not the only challenge for JMM in poll-bound Jharkhand

5. Mahua Maji (JMM), Ranchi

JMM’s Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji has become a prominent face from the state at the national level despite her two previous losses from the Ranchi seat to six-time MLA from the seat and BJP veteran Chandreshwar Prasad Singh.

In 2019, Maji lost to Singh for the second consecutive time, but by a narrow margin of about 6,000 votes. While her vote share wen up by about 18 per cent, Singh’s share came down by about the same percentage.

Can the first female Rajya Sabha MP from the JMM and the former chief of the Jharkhand Women’s Commission make her mark in Ranchi this time? This battle will be keenly watched with many eyes on Maji.

6. Sita Soren (BJP), Jamtara

The “other bahu” of the Soren family, Sita Soren — the widow of Hemant’s elder brother Durga Soren, who was patriarch Shibu Soren’s first choice as his political heir apparent but died untimely in 2009 — left the JMM earlier this year for the BJP amid sister-in-law Kalpana’s sudden rise to fame in the face of Hemant’s arrest.

She quit the JMM saying she was being “neglected and isolated” and openly expressed her displeasure amid talks of Kalpana becoming chief minister in place of Hemant. Ultimately senior leader Champai was chosen for the job but, by then, Sita had made up her mind.

Sita is a three-time MLA from the Jama assembly seat. She was also the JMM’s national general secretary. However, while quitting the JMM, Sita said she was not being given her “due respect”.

Sita won’t be contesting the Jama seat for the BJP though. The saffron party has retained Suresh Murmu — who lost to Sita twice, in 2014 and 2019, as its candidate from Jama. Sita will be taking on two-time Congress MLA from the seat and Cabinet minister Irfan Ansari.

This election will be a test for Sita too. Can she prove her weight as a worthy Soren bahu? Her pride is at stake in the polls.

7. Basant Soren (JMM), Dumka

Hemant’s younger brother Basant Soren is a relatively new face in the JMM and has had a mixed political journey so far.

He contested the 2016 Rajya Sabha polls as a JMM candidate and lost. However, his opportunity came in 2020, when bypolls were held for the Dumka seat, which Hemant had won along with Barhait. As Hemant kept Barhait, Basant contested the Dumka bypolls as a JMM candidate and defeated BJP’s Louis Marandi by 6,842 votes.

Basant’s second opportunity came earlier this year, when he took oath as a minister in the Champai Soren-led government. Can Basant retain the coveted Dumka seat? We’ll find out next month.