Saraikela, located on the banks of the Kharkai river in southern in Jharkhand, is known for Chhau dance. Barely 135km from state capital Ranchi, the Saraikela-Kharsawan district is also known for the diminutive Champai Soren (78), the 12th Chief Minister of Jharkhand, who replaced Hemant Soren after the Enforcement Directorate arrested him in a money laundering case.
Champai is often clad in loose shirt-pants and chappals, and is very close to the Soren family. A dedicated party worker, his elevation is attributed to his proximity with JMM patriarch ‘Guruji’ Shibu Soren, Hemant’s father. Popularly known as ‘Jharkhand Tiger,’ he is also called ‘Hanuman’ of Shibu Soren. Champai’s popularity can be gauged from the fact that whoever approaches him for help never returns empty-handed.
His stature within JMM was clearly visible when Hemant was seen touching his feet on several occasions. Hemant’s wife, while attending the legislature party meeting at CM’s house on January 30, was also seen taking his blessings.
Born in a farmer’s family at Jillin Gowda in Saraikela, Champai is a matriculate. He spent his childhood in Dumka in the Santhal Paragna region of the state and was married to Manko at an early age. The couple has four sons and three daughters.
Champai rose through the ranks and worked in villages without caring about hunger and thirst, gradually being recognised as a leader. “He became an MLA, then a minister and finally rose to the CM post,” says his brother Diku Ram Soren.
As the Jharkhand movement picked up pace in the 1970s — JMM was formed in 1973 — Champai began mobilising people for the cause.
Champai loves sugarless coffee and pastry along with his family in his favourite place in Jamshedpur, the Steel City. Discussions at the coffee table often veer around to his countless struggles under the leadership of Shibu Soren in carving out a separate state. Those close to him say Champai is a simple man without hatred for anybody and does not even know how to manipulate others.
People in Saraikela remember Champai Soren for getting jobs for hundreds of people in Tata Steel through a series of movements. He also played a pivotal role in ensuring mass employment in various industries in Seraikela-Kharswan district.
In the 1990s he led an agitation at the gates of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur to push for the rightful demand of unorganised labourers. In 1993, a case was filed against him under sections of the Explosive Substances Act. In his 2019 EC affidavit, the JMM veteran describes the case as a political one. “It is a political case filed during the JMM movement to make the economic blockade successful. The case relates to an attempt to destroy railway property,” he said.
His son-of-the-soil image is so stark that despite repeated requests by his friends and colleagues, he has never cared to change his worn-out shoes regardless of whom he is meeting, whether at the President’s House in Delhi or a formal party meeting.
Champai launched his political career when he won as an independent candidate in the bypolls for the Seraikela assembly seat in 1991. He joined JMM before the 1995 assembly polls. He also enjoyed a cabinet berth in Arjun Munda-led BJP-JMM government from September 2010 to January 2013.
Champai was made the food supply and science & technology minister when Hemant Soren became CM for the first time. Later, in July 2013, he became minister of food, civil supplies & transport in the JMM-led alliance government, which lasted for 17 months.
Again in 2019, when Hemant Soren became the CM for a second time, he was made minister of transport, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Backward Classes Welfare.
Political observers say Champai will have to live under the shadow of the Shibu Soren family and do a tightrope walk between his alliance partners on the one hand and an aggressive opposition, the BJP.
