A veteran of the Jharkhand statehood movement and senior most leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Champai Soren was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Friday.
A loyalist of JMM president Shibu Soren, Champai became the leader of the JMM legislative party after Hemant Soren’s resignation as the Chief Minister and his subsequent arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged land fraud case on Wednesday.
The 67-year-old tribal leader has earned the sobriquet “Tiger of Kolham” for his contribution to the statehood movement in the 1990s. Jharkhand was created from the southern part of Bihar in 2000.
Born to a family of farmers in Jilingagoda village in Saraikela-Kharsawan district, he completed his Class 10 from a government school.
His political innings started in 1991 after getting elected as an Independent MLA through a by-election from the Saraikela seat in undivided Bihar.
Four years later, he contested the from the seat on JMM ticket and defeated the BJP. In the first Assembly election held following the formation of the state, the BJP defeated him from the seat. In 2005, tables turned and he won the seat again.
In the subsequent elections, Champai Soren won in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
In the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda between September 2010 to January 2013, he served as a Cabinet minister and in the Hemant Soren-led government in 2019, he became the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies and Transport.
Champai Soren got married at a young age and has four sons and three daughters.
According to a 2019 election affidavit, the JMM leader declared Rs 42.90 lakh deposited in banks, Rs 80.27 lakh of moveable assets, and Rs 48.91 lakh of immovable assets, and a liability of Rs 24.04 lakh.
