New Delhi: Senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and former Chief Minister Champai Soren on Wednesday resigned from the primary membership of the Shibu Soren-led party and also gave up all other positions he held in the JMM.
Champai Soren is expected to officially join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on August 30.
The latest development came two days after he met Home Minister Amit Shah along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP’s co-election in-charge for Jharkhand, in the national capital.
Champai Soren served as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand after incumbent CM Hemant Soren was arrested and imprisoned in connection with a land scam case.
However, Champai Soren was made to step aside for Hemant Soren to retain his chief ministerial position days after the latter was released on bail on June 28.
In his resignation letter sent to Shibu Soren, Champai Soren addressed the JMM chief as ‘Guruji’ as usual, while expressing his dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in the party — reasons, he claimed, compelled him to leave JMM.
Champai Soren said the party has deviated from its original path, underlining in the resignation letter that he was leaving the party with “great sadness”.
The former CM also said that he never imagined leaving JMM — the party he considered his family — but the recent events made him take this “difficult decision”.
Referring to Shibu Soren’s current health and inability to actively participate in politics, Champai Soren wrote in his resignation letter: “There is no other forum in the party (besides reaching out to you) where we can express our grievances and concerns.”
Champai Soren also thanked Shibu Soren for the opportunities he received under his guidance during the Jharkhand movement (for the creation of a separate state from Bihar), and thereafter.
On August 26, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X: “Former Chief Minister of Jharkhand and a distinguished Adivasi leader of our country, @ChampaiSoren Ji met Hon’ble Union Home Minister @AmitShah Ji a short while ago. He will officially join the @BJP4India on 30th August in Ranchi.”
Sarma also shared a photo of the veteran Jharkhand leader meeting Amit Shah.
Sarma also said that Champai Soren’s joining the BJP would further strengthen the party.
Responding to Hemant Soren’s allegations that the BJP was attempting to divide his party, Sarma said: “Look, I even want Hemant Soren to join the BJP. BJP means devotion towards the nation. There should be no question of dividing the country. We all work together for the country.”
Champai Soren, who held the Chief Minister’s post for just five months (February 2 to July 4), had on August 18 broken his silence on the “affront and insult” he was subjected to within the JMM, and narrated a few incidents which forced him to rethink his association with the party he served whole of his life.
He said he was left devastated when his decisions were overturned by some party workers and his programmes as CM were cancelled at the behest of some “overpowering” figure in the JMM.
–IANS
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