Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, JMM leaders meet Hemant in jail; discuss poll outcome

Ranchi, June 8

Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren and senior JMM leaders met former CM Hemant Soren at Birsa Munda Central Jail here on Saturday.

Party sources said the JMM leaders, including Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana, discussed the Lok Sabha election results as well as the party’s strategy in view of the Assembly polls which are due later this year.

This is the first meeting of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leaders with the former CM after the Lok Sabha elections, a JMM leader said.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won eight seats and its ally AJSU Party one, while JMM emerged victorious in three constituencies and the Congress in one.

Kalpana Soren won the Gandey assembly bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat had fallen vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.

Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31 in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud.

Attacking Champai Soren over meeting with the former CM in the prison, Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shah Deo said, “This government is being run from jail secretariat and not the CM secretariat.”

Besides Champai and Kalpana, those who met Hemant Soren included MPs Joba Majhi and Vijay Hansdak.