Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren joins BJP
Jharkhand’s former Chief Minister Champai Soren, who had quit the state’s ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Wednesday, on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Assembly elections later this year.
Soren joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP’s Jharkhand unit chief Babulal Marandi.
On Tuesday, he announced that he was joining the BJP, claiming that only the Hindu nationalist party was serious about the problem of “infiltrators from Bangladesh.” This is part of the anti-Muslim and right-wing campaign by the Hindutva party to target Muslim minorities in the region. Muslims in India, particularly in northeastern India, were falsely labeled as "infiltrators" by top office bearers of the country, including the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, which often led to street violence against Muslims.
Champai Soren had taken over as Jharkhand’s chief minister on February 2. This came after Hemant Soren resigned from the post on January 31, hours before his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case. After the Jharkhand High Court granted Hemant Soren bail on June 28, Champai Soren from Jharkhand’s Seraikella resigned as the chief minister on July 3.
Earlier on Friday, Ghatshila MLA Ramdas Soren was inducted into the state Cabinet to replace Champai Soren.
