RANCHI: Name of jailed former chief minister Hemant Soren figuring prominently in the list of star campaigners for the Jharkhand Lok Sabha elections has triggered a row among political circles.
On Saturday, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) named 40 star campaigners which also include Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren, party president Shibu Soren and Chief Minister Champai Soren.
Hitting out at the party, the BJP said that the JMM is still not able to accept Champai Soren as the Chief Minister and is trying to keep Hemant Soren at the centre-stage by projecting him as invincible to the party. “Hemant Soren’s name appearing among the other star campaigners clearly indicates that Champai Soren is the Chief Minister just for name sake and the party is still not able to accept him as Chief Minister,” said BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.
Ironically, they have named Hemant Soren as star campaigner despite the fact that he is currently lodged in jail as an accused of money laundering through land scam, he added.
Another BJP functionary Pradeep Sinha said that only the JMM functionaries can say that how Hemant Soren will campaign from the jail. “It is possible only in JMM that an incarcerated person has been made a star campaigner.”
The JMM has also included some rebels like Chamra Linda in the list despite Chamra filing his nomination from Lohardaga as an independent candidate against Congress candidate Sukhdeo Bhagat.
The Congress, under the seat sharing arrangement of INDI-Alliance, has fielded Sukhdeo Bhagat from the seat.
Sinha said that Congress needs to understand who is pushing these rebels against its candidate. The JMM, however, said that there is nothing wrong in it as they strongly believe that the ex-CM will be out of jail before the elections.
“What’s wrong with it? There is a hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday against the arresting of Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate, and we strongly believe that he will get relief from the apex court. Still there is a lot of time during which he can get relief from the top court,” said JMM spokesperson Monoj Pandey.
Being a former CM, Hemant Soren is quite popular among the youths and hence the party has named him as a star campaigner, he added.
In addition to the prominent ones, names of leaders like Nalin Soren, Prof. Stephen Marandi, Mathura Prasad Mahato, Savita Mahato, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Bejnay Ram, Vinod Kumar Pandey, Fagu Besra, Supriyo Bhattacharya, Deepak Birua, Sudivy Kumar Sonu, Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, Chamra Linda, Yogendra Mahato, Abhishek Kumar Pintu also figure in the list.