Ranchi, Dec 30 (Inditop.com) He is a politician to the core, known as a champion of the poor and hugely popular despite being dogged by bribery allegations. Shibu Soren, who became Jharkhand’s chief minister for the third time Wednesday, will also face two murder cases not long after getting the top post in the state.
Popularly known as ‘Guruji’, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief took to politics after battling for years moneylenders who exploited members of his poor and largely impoverished tribal community.
Born Jan 11, 1944, in Nemra village of Hazaribagh district (though his village is now in Ramgarh district), Soren had to cut short his education after his father was allegedly killed by thugs employed by moneylenders.
That made the young man a lifelong foe of moneylenders. At the age of 18, he constituted the Santhal Navyuvak Sangh.
In the late 1960s, he set up an ashram at Tundi block in Dhanbad district. He became a terror to those who lent money to the needy at exorbitant rates of interest. He also took up the cause of the poor. Very soon, he was also opposing “outsiders” – the non-tribals.
In an outbreak of violence against “outsiders”, the tribals killed 11 people in Chirudih village of Jamtara district. Soren was made an accused in the case but has been acquitted by a Jamtara district court.
By then he was being revered as a “god” in tribal society. The murder case forced Soren to go underground. But not for long.
In 1971, Soren became the general secretary of JMM. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. In 1986, he became the JMM president. He went on to represent the Dumka Lok Sabha constituency in 1989, 1991, 1996, 2004 and 2009.
Soren’s image changed with the passage of time. As he came to be seen as another politician who made deals and took short cuts to power, he failed to get elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 and 1999.
His popularity declined after he and three other Lok Sabha MPs were charged with taking bribes to vote in favour of the Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1992. He was jailed in the bribery case.
In 2004, he became coal minister in the Manmohan Singh government. He was forced to quit the cabinet in July 2004 after a warrant pending against him in the Chirudih massacre surfaced.
Soren was again made a minister in the central government in October 2004. He quit the cabinet in March 2005 after becoming Jharkhand chief minister. But he failed to prove his majority in the assembly, and had to step down.
Soren was again inducted in the central cabinet in 2006. He had to leave the central cabinet again in October that year after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his personal secretary Shashinath Jha.
He appealed, and was acquitted by the Delhi High Court in 2007. He has also been let off in the Chirudih massacre case. He became chief minister for the second time Aug 27, 2008 but stepped down after he lost the Tamar assembly by-poll in January this year.
Soren has taken charge at a time when Jharkhand has hit the headlines for the deeds of former ministers such as ex-chief minister Madhu Koda, who is at the centre of a Rs.2,500 crore money laundering scam.
Soren himself still has two murder cases pending against him. One in the Giridih district court related to the murder of three people has its next hearing scheduled Jan 4.
Plus, the Supreme Court will hear on March 8 an appeal against Soren’s acquittal in the Shashi Nath Jha murder case.
