Fifth resignation in four and a half years

When Sibu Soren on Monday put in his papers to the Raj Bhawan, it was his fifth resignation during a short span of four-and-a-half years. Each of the time he was compelled by legal-political circumstances to step down, reports Madan Kumar.

When Sibu Soren on Monday put in his papers to the Raj Bhawan, it was his fifth resignation during a short span of four-and-a-half years. Each of the time he was compelled by legal-political circumstances to step down.

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But with the latest resignation on Monday, Soren created a short of record in his name. He has become the only politician in India who has to resign under pressure thrice as union minister and twice as Jharkhand chief minister.

In fact, politics and court cases proved like the play of ladder and snake for the veteran of Jharkhand movement since May 23, 2004 when he was first inducted in the union cabinet as the minister of coal and mines.

Just within two months of his swearing-in as a minister in the Manmohan Singh Government, Soren was forced to resign from the cabinet on July 24, 2004, after a district court at Jamtara (Jharkhand) issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him in the famous Chirudih massacre case.

Soren was re-inducted in union cabinet on November 27, 2004 as minister of coal, after he secured bail in the Chirudih case following a three-month stay in Jamtara camp jail.

But he has to resign again from the union cabinet on March 2, 2005, when he was sworn- in as Jharkhand chief minister, for the first time.

As happens in the play of ladder and snake, Soren was once again re-inducted in union cabinet with the same portfolio on January 29, 2006. But the snake again did its act. this time, the snake bite was stronger. Soren was again forced to resign from union cabinet on November 28, 2006 after a Delhi Court convicted him in the famous Shashinath Jha murder case. He was acquitted in this murder case from Delhi High Court on August 22, 2007.

After a long wait of over 12 months, Soren was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand, for the second time, on August 27, 2008. But he again had to resign today after facing humiliating defeat in Tamar by-poll and receiving flaks from different quarters on the charges of clinging to the CM’s post despite losing by-election.