A day before the last seventh phase of polls in three parliamentary constituencies -Rajmahal, Godda, and Dumka-considered as a homeland of the Soren family, Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren met ex-CM Hemant Soren inside Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi today( May 31). 

Though what they talked to each other is not known, Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren had galvanized their party JMM and addressed a series of public meetings in the poll-bound constituencies.

This is learnt to have brightened the prospect of JMM and its ally Congress candidates in Adivasi-dominated Dumka and Rajmahal constituencies.  

Kalpana Soren who is expected to win the Gandey Assembly seat where the by-poll was held on May 20, is considered as the rightful successor of the CM Champai Soren.

Insiders of the ruling JMM say Champai Soren may be asked to resign and help” Kalpana Soren become CM after she gets elected as MLA from Gandey. This was, however, not endorsed or confirmed by any official spokesperson of the JMM. 

A possibility is that after the Gandey by-poll results are out on June 4, Kalpana Soren may emerge as a front-runner for the top post of CM. 

Already these were prime subjects of discussion in public in capital city of Jharkhand. It is also anticipated by political pandits that these “ issues” might have transpired in Hemant- Champai talks behind the high walls of the jail today.

As per court records, Hemant Soren was arrested on January 31 after he resigned as the Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor. 

He is at present lodged in judicial custody at the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi and was sent to jail on February 15 after his 13-day ED custody ended. His petitions submitted in the trial court, high court, and top Supreme Court, to get bail has failed.  

The allegations of money laundering against the JMM leader Soren pertain to the alleged illegal possession of certain immovable assets apart from his purported links with members of the 'land mafia'.  

The investigation is linked to a "huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia" in Jharkhand, according to the central probe agency.