Hemant Soren may return as Jharkhand CM: ‘Want to send clear message of leadership’

On Wednesday, more than 1,500 newly selected teachers were supposed to be handed over their appointment letters in a ceremony at Ranchi, Jharkhand, with Chief Minister Champai Soren the chief guest. At the last minute, the ceremony was cancelled.

However, as per sources, the event has merely been postponed, to felicitate Hemant Soren’s return as CM, with the handing over of the appointment letters.

While after Hemant’s release from bail in the Enforcement Directorate case filed against him, sources in the ruling JMM had said that Champai would continue as CM, there appears to be a rethink.

Sources in the government defined it as holding up the “status quo ante”, with the purpose of Hemant’s resignation as CM, ahead of his arrest, and naming of loyalist Champai to the post having been fulfilled.

A source in the government said: “Hemant Soren is likely to take over as he wants to portray a unified command, and the government wants to go with clarity before the public as to who is leading the JMM (the state elections are months away), so that there are no doubts. Champai Soren’s role was to lead the government in transit and he has successfully done it.”

Hemant got bail on June 28, five months after he was arrested, with the Jharkhand High Court saying there exist “reasons to believe that he was not guilty of the offence” of money laundering brought against him over a plot of land in Ranchi. In his first address, Hemant told party workers that he had received information that the state elections may be announced early and that he was “ready”.

The bail for Hemant is a second shot in the arm for the JMM after the recent Lok Sabha elections, where it won three of the five Lok Sabha seats (out of the total 14 in the state) it