Native village basks in Hemant Soren's ascendency

A village in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district has suddenly shot to the limelight as the native village of Hemant Soren who will take oath as Jharkhand’s ninth chief minister on Saturday. Manoj Sinha reports.

In a dust bowl of a village in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, the people are living a fairytale.

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Nemra, just another rural settlement which dots the plains in these parts of the state, has suddenly shot to the limelight as the native village of Hemant Soren who will take oath as Jharkhand’s ninth chief minister on Saturday.

Hemant Soren was born in this village on August 10, 1975 but till now Nemra knew more about his more famous father Sibu Soren, the firebrand Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader who became the chief minister of Jharkhand. Nemra falls under Gola block of Ramgarh district.

Close family-members of Jharkhand’s political first family findly recall that both Sibu Soren and his son Hemant Soren regularly visit the village and pay obeisance at the Rajrappa temple.

Hemant’s cousin Kishore Soren, for one, is “very happy that our brother is going to be the next chief minister of Jharkhand”. He hoped that Hemant will give the village what is has lacked till now – “a good hospital, school, college and industries”.

Family-members pointed out that ailing villagers have to go to 25 kms for treatment and children are suffering because of a lack of a good school. “If industries are set up here, it will be a boon for the local unemployed youths,” Kishore added.

For villager Anil Besra, the new government must concentrate on boosting agriculture which is the main profession of the village. “Since there is no facility of irrigation, villagers depend on rain water. A check dam must be made here for irrigation facility. The village roads also needs be made better for faster communication”.

Meetings at street-corners and roadside kioks these days often veer to Hemant and the road ahead for him.

Another villager Nakul Besra recalled that when the stir for a separate state was at its height, “Hmant Soren was not so matured. As he became older he started to work with father Sibu Soren and later brother Durga Soren. Now the Soren family is getting the benefit of a separate state agitation”.

Sibu Soren started his political career from this village following the killing of his father by money-lenders around fifty years ago. During president’s rule, the elder uncle of Hemant Soren, Rajaram Soren, had unsuccessfully contest the Ramgarh assembly constituency.