'I Was Devastated, Have 3 Options Before Me': Champai Soren Amid BJP Switch Buzz

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Champai Soren on Sunday expressed his pain over the way he was treated by his own party and said that “he was devastated as his self-respect was harmed” when he was asked to resign from his post after Chief Minister Hemant Soren was released on bail.

Soren also claimed that he was surprised to find that the party leadership cancelled events that he was supposed to attend after Hul Diwas, a festival held in Jharkhand to celebrate the martyr Sido Kanhu, who led the Santhal rebellion.

“I was broken from within. I could not understand what to do. For two days, I sat quietly and introspected, kept searching for my mistake in the whole incident. I did not have the greed for power even a bit, but to whom could I show this blow to my self-respect? Where could I express the pain inflicted by my own people?” Champai Soren said in his social media post, published in Hindi.

JMM leader and former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren left for Delhi on Sunday amid speculations of him likely to join the BJP, news agencies reported.

Soren told reporters that he hasn’t met any BJP leader and he is in the national capital on a “personal” visit but later said in his tweet that his options are now open.

“Till the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections, all options are open for me in this journey,” he said.

He told party members at a meeting that ‘a new chapter’ has begun in his life. “A new chapter of my life is going to start from today. I had three options. First, to retire from politics, second, to form my own separate organisation and third, if I find a companion on this path, then to travel further with that companion,” he said.

Soren said he looked for an alternative path because of ‘insulting behaviour’ from his own people and said he was holding back his tears.

“Due to the insulting behaviour I was facing for the last three days that I was trying to control my tears I felt as if I had no existence in that party, no existence at all, for which I had dedicated my entire life,” he said.

Without naming anyone, he said “they were only interested in the chair”. “In the meantime, many such insulting incidents happened, which I do not want to mention right now,” he said.