Soren and step-downs

Described by his brother Lalu Soren as a revolutionary and by his friend-turned-foe Suraj Mandal as a rebel,Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief...

Described by his brother Lalu Soren as a revolutionary and by his friend-turned-foe Suraj Mandal as a rebel,Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren,popularly known as Guruji,enjoyed his first stint as chief minister in 2005 for little more than a week before he was forced to quit after failing to prove his majority in the Assembly. His second innings in the office began on August 27,2008,when he replaced Madhu Koda. But four months later,his defeat at the hands of Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter,by a whopping margin of almost 9,000 votes,means hes out yet again.

But that is not all. In 2004,Soren was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet as coal minister after a court in Jamtara issued an arrest warrant in his name in the Chirudih massacre case Soren had allegedly incited a mob to kill several outsiders,the majority of them Muslims,in 1975. However,he was acquitted just months later and re-inducted into the ministry. He resigned in 2005 to become the chief minister of Jharkhand,but was back in the Central Cabinet soon. This was not to last either. Soren was made to step down in November 2006 after he was found guilty of being involved in the murder of his former personal secretary,Shashinath Jha,in 1994. According to the chargesheet,Jha knew incriminating details about the alleged deal between the Congress and the JMM to save the Narasimha Rao government during the 1993 no-confidence motion. Jha was also alleged to have been blackmailing Soren for a large sum of money. However,in 2007,Soren was acquitted of all charges.

Nonetheless,Sorens popularity has suffered as a result of the many allegations against him. His loss in Naxalite-infested Tamar may also have been affected by the fact that the area had never been the JMMs stronghold. Soren had contested the seat offered by the Congress and backed by the RJD for the first time. In addition,his conciliatory stance towards the Naxalites may have worked against him in area where CPIMaoist cadres had indulged in a series of crime recently. Guruji turned Naxalite-friendly and described the Maoists as bhai,behan .This enraged a vast section of the electorate, said Ram Nagina Minz,a local schoolteacher. Others said they did not trust his promise of all-round development of Tamar since the Dumka constituency he had previously represented had shown few signs of progress.

Then there are the allegations of corruption against Soren a comparative study of income tax returns filed during the past three years revealed that Soren owned assets including those of his family worth about Rs 50 lakh in 2005 and Rs 90 lakh in 2008. The 66-year-old politicians image as a champion for the poor has been tarnished as a result. The son of a schoolteacher,who campaigned against moneylenders and was murdered,Soren became known for taking on his fathers cause. The result was a popular and violent tribal uprising against land-grabbers and moneylenders in Hazaribagh,Dhanbad,Giridih and Dumka. These were the days that Soren was seen as Dishum Guru hero of the land by the tribals. He went on to found the JMM in 1973. Subsequently,he represented Dumka in the Bihar Assembly in 1978 and the Lok Sabha four times since 1980. He had the lost Dumka LS seat to the BJPs Babulal Marandi in 1997.