Expressing grief at the death of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader, current Jharkhand Chief Minister and his son Hemant Soren, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Respected Guru Dishom has left us all. Today, I have become empty…”. He had visited the Delhi hospital to meet his father in June this year.
The former CM had been the leader of the party for the past 38 years. He had been the party president since 1987. In April this year, Hemant Soren took the reins of the party from his father and the JMM co-founder, who was given the designation of “founding patron”. Hailing his father’s legacy, Hemant had said, “Despite limited resources, he took the pledge to protect the people and ‘Jal Jungle, Jamin (water, forest and land)’ of Jharkhand, which is not an ordinary feat. The entire country knows him as Guruji.”
Hemant Soren along with father, Shibu Soren. (Express Archive)
He is survived by wife Roopi Soren, three sons and daughter Anjani, who is the party’s Odisha unit head. (PTI Photo/Archive)
Born on January 11, 1944, in Ramgarh district’s Nemra village, Soren, popularly known as ‘Dishom Guru’ (leader of the land), was one of the most enduring political figures in the country’s tribal and regional political landscape. (Express Archive)
Story continues below this ad
Soren was elected several times to the Lower House from Dumka – the eighth time between May 2014-2019 as member of the 16th Lok Sabha. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2020, as per a PTI report. (Express Archive)
He also served as Chief Minister of Jharkhand three times — in March 2005 (for just 10 days from March 2 to March 11), August 27, 2008 to January 12, 2009, and from December 30, 2009 to May 31, 2010. (Express Archive)
Soren’s grassroots mobilisation against feudal exploitation shaped him into a tribal icon, who later, demanded a separate state which led to the formation of Jharkhand on November 15, 2000. (Express Archive)
The then Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and JMM chief Shibu Soren at a meeting in Ranchi in 2007. (PTI/Archive Photo)
Story continues below this ad
Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Shibu Soren, Sharad Pawar, Ram Vilas Paswan and other leaders at dinner party hosted by her at her residence in Delhi in 2008. (Express Archive)
This picture shows Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram shaking Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren’s hand at the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi in 2010. (Express Archive)
Shibu Soren along with Hemant Soren and other party MLAs handing over the letter of withdrawal of support to the Jharkhand’s BJP government to Governor Syed Ahmed at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi in 2013. (PTI Photo/Archive)
Shibu Soren with Rahul Gandhi during JMM leader and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s swearing-in ceremony at Morabadi Maidan, Ranchi on December 29, 2019. (Express Archive)
Story continues below this ad
JMM is currently a member of the opposition INDIA bloc at the national level. In this picture, you can see Hemant Soren along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, JMM’s Shibu Soren, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, other dignitaries. (ANI Archives)
According to Soren’s family, his early life was marked by personal tragedy and deep socio-economic struggles, however, his political life was defined by his continuous advocacy for tribal rights. (PTI Photo/Archive)
For people in Jharkhand, Shibu Soren remains a symbol of their long-fought struggle for identity and self-rule. (Express Archive)From the homepage
