Who is Champai Soren, proposed as new chief minister of Jharkhand?

As Hemant Soren resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Wednesday night, his loyalist and state Transport Minister Champai Soren has been proposed by the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM)-led coalition as the new state head.

Soren has been a legislator from Saraikela assembly constituency for more than three decades since 1991 and is known to be a loyalist of JMM supremo Shibu Soren. He served as the Science and Technology, Labour and Housing September 2010  to January 2013 and a minister of Food and Civil Supplies, Transport from July 2013  to December 2014 under the third Jharkhand Assembly.

Before Jharkhand was carved out of the southern portion of Bihar in 2000, he represented Saraikela constituency in the Bihar Assembly after winning 1995 state elections.

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He was serving as the Transport, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Caste & Backward Class Welfare minister under the Hemant Soren government, before being chosen as the new leader of the JMM Legislative party.

Born in November 1956 at Jilinggora village in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district, Champai Soren is a matriculate and father of seven children. He is the son of a farmer and is not related to the Hemant Soren family.