Champai Soren may offer to step down as CM for Hemant but swap unlikely: JMM

RANCHI: Champai Soren could offer to step down as Jharkhand CM for his predecessor Hemant Soren to take over the job again but the latter possibly wouldn't want a baton change before assembly polls later this year, the party's general secretary and national spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said Friday.
"In all likelihood, he (Hemant Soren) will ask his chacha (uncle) to complete the remainder of his tenure," Bhattacharya told TOI.
Hemant, executive president of JMM, will be the party's face going into campaigning for the assembly polls. "He will take over (the chief ministership) after the INDIA bloc returns to office with a thumping majority," the JMM spokesperson said.
Before Hemant's release on bail in the land scam case, there was speculation that his wife Kalpana Murmu Soren would replace Champai. This was after she won the byelection to the Gandey segment in Giridih district.
BJP's state unit spoke of a widening rift in the JMM camp, involving Champai and Kalpana, over the chief minister's chair. JMM dismissed any such possibility.
Champai is credited with galvanising JMM in Hemant's absence and leading the party to three significant victories in the Lok Sabha polls and helping INDIA bloc stave off BJP's challenge in all five tribal-dominant seats.
Hours after high court gave Hemant bail, Champai wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "Satyameva Jayate! Satya pareshan ho sakta hai, parajit nahi (The truth can be under stress but not defeated)."
He told the media after a cabinet meeting that he may be the CM, but Hemant was JMM's spearhead. "We contested the LS elections with Hemant's face in the forefront. He will be our natural leader and JMM's face in the assembly elections."
On whether he intended to make way for Hemant as CM, Champai said, "A decision in this regard will be taken by the party and its allies."
Champai, MLA from Seraikela, was a minister in Hemant's cabinet and No. 3 in the JMM hierarchy after Shibu Soren and his son, was sworn in as CM on Feb 2.