In the middle of a political crisis in the state over the chief minister’s summons by the Enforcement Directorate to appear in court on allegations of land scams and related cases, Jharkhand lawmaker Sita Soren declared on Wednesday that she would oppose any move to remove chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren from her position as chief minister. Hemant’s elder sister-in-law Sita made her statement one day after his younger brother Basant Soren claimed there was no family division over the matter.
Sita, a legislator from Jama who has served as an MLA for about 14 years, told news agency PTI, “I would like to ask why only Kalpana Soren (for the CM’s post), who is not even an MLA and has no political experience.” According to Sita, the elder daughter-in-law of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren, Kalpana Soren was not present at the Tuesday night alliance legislator meeting at the chief minister’s residence. The Chief Minister’s Office also shared photos of the event. She promised to “strongly protest any move to make her (Kalpana) the chief minister.”
“There are several senior leaders in the party, who could be given the rein. If they wanted to elect from a family, I am the senior-most in the house and have been an MLA for around 14 years,” said the widow of Hemant’s elder brother and former legislator Durga Soren. Dumka MLA Basant Soren ruled out a family split in an interview with news agency ANI on Tuesday. “We are one family. He had declared that the choice that is best for the party and the welfare of the state would be made.
Earlier this month, Hemant Soren dismissed as “complete imagination” the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rumors that his wife was a candidate in the Gandey assembly constituency. “My wife’s potential to run for office in the near future is entirely the BJP’s imagination… The chief minister had stated, “The BJP is weaving a false narrative with the rumors that she is taking over the reins.” Speculation that Kalpana would become the chief minister began in December, following the unexpected resignation of Gandey MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad of the ruling JMM.
Ahmad was forced to resign, according to the opposition BJP, so that the chief minister’s spouse could run for office in Gandey in the event that the ED summonses were to become relevant.
The agency claims that the investigation is related to a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand. In this case, the ED has so far detained 14 people, among them Chhavi Ranjan, an IAS officer from the 2011 batch who was the deputy commissioner of Ranchi and the director of the state’s social welfare department.