Hemant Soren takes oath as Jharkhand CM

Champai Soren’s rise, however brief, to Chief Minister followed a power struggle within the JMM as the party scrambled to find a replacement for Hemant Soren.

JMM’s executive chief Hemant Soren took oath as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Thursday, days after he walked out of jail in a money laundering case. Earlier in the day, Governor C P Radhakrishnan invited the leader to form the government, a day after his predecessor Champai Soren stepped down as Chief Minister. Champai met the Governor on Wednesday to submit his resignation after the ruling coalition’s 45 MLAs elected Hemant Soren as their leader. Hemant was released from jail after the Jharkhand High Court granted him bail on June 28, five months after he was arrested. The court had noted that there exist “reasons to believe that he was not guilty of the offence” of money laundering brought against him over a plot of land in Ranchi.

It was at the Raj Bhavan, five months ago, that Mr Soren resigned – after drama that included “the case of the missing Chief Minister” – to avoid the ignominy of being the first sitting state head to be arrested. Before he took oath today he posted a video message on X, in which he slammed “arrogant people intoxicated with power (a reference to the BJP) who tried to silence me”, and said, “Today, the public opinion of the people of Jharkhand will rise again. Jai Jharkhand, Jai Hind.”