Dynasty Watch

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren, 58, is these days camping in Dumka to campaign for his 56-year-old wife, Rupi Soren Kisku'...

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren, 58, is these days camping in Dumka to campaign for his 56-year-old wife, Rupi Soren Kisku8217;. Soren preferred his wife over other candidates in his party to win back the Santhal-dominated Dumka Lok Sabha seat which he had lost to the BJP8217;s Babulal Marandi in 1998 after winning it in 1980, 1989, 1991 and 1996.

8220;I don8217;t see anything wrong in fielding her. Within the party there was no candidate for Dumka. Since I am already a Rajya Sabha member, I decided not to contest for the Lok Sabha. The party recommended her name,8221; says Soren. But JMM vice-president Suraj Mandal, who has differences with Soren, rebuts this. 8220;Stephen Babu Stephen Marandi is an MLA and leader of our legislators 8212; 16 MLAs 8212; in the Assembly. He could have been a better candidate,8221; he says.

This week while Mandal, who is the JMM candidate in Godda, was campaigning for himself there, Soren addressed at least 30 meetings in far-flung villages of Dumka. Accompanied by half-a-dozen partyloyalists, he had his wife and MLA son Durga at his elbow. Yes, the Soren dynasty is evolving gradually. His eldest son, Durga, 31, won the Dumka assembly seat on the party ticket in 1995. However, Soren8217;s second son, Hemant, is studying at Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi while his third son is studying computers in Delhi. His daughter, Anjali, is married to an engineer in Mayurbhanj in Orissa.

After being accused in the Rs 3.5-crore bribery scandal and his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha8217;s abduction and murder case and having promoted his kin in politics at the cost of others, Soren is now facing mounting criticism. 8220;Guruji is a very shrewd man. He fires his shots keeping his gun on others8217; shoulders and has tremendous weakness for wine, women and wealth,8221; says P. Manoranjan, a former JMM member who has interacted with Soren since 1952.

Soren seems to have feathered his nest well. From being a school dropout who used to contribute to his family by cutting trees and selling wood and who laterin his life used to sleep in the forest to evade the police following a bloody agitation against non-adivasi moneylenders, he today owns 8220;more than two dozen vehicles, a bungalow in his village in Gola and a cinema hall in Bokaro8221;, according to Manoranjan.

His bid to 8220;impose8221; his wife has also revived a controversy about his marriage. In the conservative Santhal society, no marriage can take place within the same sub-group like the gotra in the Hindus and the woman retains her surname after marriage. Soren8217;s detractors say Kisku belonged to his gotra, an allegation denied by the JMM chief.

According to JMM member Sushil Kachchhap, Kisku will win because 8220;Guruji Soren has nursed Dumka. Apart from spending the MP8217;s fund of Rs 1 crore, he has used his position as Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council Chairman to pump in crores to make available water, irrigation and roads under the World Bank-sponsored Bihar Plateau Development Project in Dumka during the past three years.8221;

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To counter the damage tohis image, Soren has now spread the word that he is a wronged man. 8220;Guruji is an innocent man. He was fooled by the dikkus outsiders of his party.8221; Dikkus of JMM? Are they Suraj Mandal and his supporters who are non-adivasis? Soren refuses comment. But Ratin Murmu, who is close to the JMM president, replies in the affirmative. 8220;My uncle Soren is a Santhal who became a victim of the non-adivasi samaj, you know,8221; he says.

Whatever the outcome of this contest, the man who set up JMM in 1972 for the 8220;liberation8221; of Jharkhand seems to have travelled a long, long way.