JMM leader Champai Soren signs documents after taking oath as Jharkhand CM during the swearing-in ceremony, at Raj Bhawan in Ranchi, on Friday, February 2. PTI
Who is Champai Soren and why is he called 'Jharkhand's tiger'?
He started his political career by getting elected as an independent MLA through a by-election from the Saraikela seat in 1991.
JMM party leader Champai Soren was on Friday (February 2) sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
He was on Wednesday (January 31) elected as the JMM's legislative party leader. Hemant Soren quit after he was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in a money laundering case and was later arrested on Wednesday night.
Who is Champai Soren?
From a humble farm worker, who tilled fields with his father in remote Jilingora village in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district, to be known as "Jharkhand's Tiger", 67-year-old Champai Soren has had his share of ups and downs.
A loyalist of JMM president Shibu Soren, the state transport minister is popularly known as “Jharkhand's tiger" for his contribution to the long fight for the creation of a separate Jharkhand state in the 1990s.
"I used to work in farms along with my father (Simal Soren)... Now fate has offered me a different role," Champai Soren told PTI after being elected as the leader of the JMM legislative party.
Married at a young age
A matriculate from a government school, Champai Soren got married at a young age and has four sons and three daughters.
He started his political career by getting elected as an independent MLA through a by-election from the Saraikela seat in 1991.
Four years later, he contested the assembly polls from the seat on JMM ticket and defeated the BJP's Panchu Tudu.
Champai's journey as MLA
In the 2000 Assembly elections, he was defeated from the same constituency by the BJP's Anant Ram Tudu.
He regained the seat in 2005 by defeating the BJP candidate by a margin of only 880 votes.
Champai Soren won the subsequent elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019.
He served as a Cabinet minister in the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda between September 2010 to January 2013.
When Hemant Soren formed a government in the state in 2019, Champai Soren became the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies and Transport.
His name has been proposed as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand and a support letter has been given to the Governor CP Radhakrishnan.
(With agency inputs)
