Decode Politics: Hemant Soren in, Champai out, why and what now

Hemant Soren is set to return as Jharkhand Chief Minister with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM’s) legislature party choosing him as its leader on Wednesday. After incumbent CM Champai Soren met the Governor Wednesday evening and tendered his resignation, Hemant submitted a request to form the government.

The Governor will now decide on a date for the swearing-in of Hemant and his ministers. The JMM leader had resigned as CM five months ago, ahead of his arrest over money laundering allegations, after which Champai had taken over.

The party has got a shot in the arm from the regular bail to Hemant in the money laundering case, with the Jharkhand High Court noting in its order that “there exist reasons to believe that he is not guilty”. Party insiders admitted that they too were taken by surprise at the court move.

Going forward, the JMM led by Hemant is set to go to the public with the message that he was kept in jail for five months in a “false” case led by an agency controlled by the Centre, “forcing” him to leave the post of CM. With elections due at the end of the year, this is the best-case scenario for the JMM, which is anyway on the upswing after its Lok Sabha poll performance.

Hemant is expected to push through the remaining promises made by him while in government, ahead of the elections.

Sources close to Hemant also suggested that while he was “not keen” to take over so soon after coming out on bail, there was alarm over allegations regarding some aspects of the Champai administration.

No. Sources said Champai pushed back, pointing out that elections were due in two months and the bid to remove him from the post “would not look good”. He also argued that while he was also a “mass leader” in his own right, Hemant was