Ranchi: From a humble farm worker, who tilled fields with his father in remote Jilingora village in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district, to be known as "Jharkhand's Tiger", 67-year-old Champai Soren has had his share of ups and downs.
A loyalist of JMM president Shibu Soren, the state transport minister is popularly known as “Jharkhand's tiger" for his contribution to the long fight for creation of a separate Jharkhand state in the 1990s.
"I used to work in farms along with my father (Simal Soren)... Now fate has offered me a different role," Champai Soren told PTI after being elected as the leader of the JMM legislative party.
He became the new leader of the JMM legislative party after Hemant Soren resigned as the chief minister by the ED in a money laundering case and his subsequent arrest.
A matriculate from a government school, Champai Soren got married at a young age and has four sons and three daughters.
He started his political career by getting elected as an independent MLA through a by-election from the Saraikela seat in 1991.
Four years later, he contested the assembly polls from the seat on JMM ticket and defeated the BJP's Panchu Tudu.
In the 2000 assembly elections, he was defeated from the same constituency by the BJP's Anant Ram Tudu.
He regained the seat in 2005 as defeating the BJP candidate by a margin of only 880 votes.
Champai Soren won the subsequent elections in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
He served as a cabinet minister in the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda between September 2010 to January 2013.
When Hemant Soren formed a government in the state in 2019, Champai Soren became the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies and Transport.
His name has been proposed as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand and a support letter has been given to the Governor CP Radhakrishnan.
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