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Soren scrambles for safe seat to fight assembly poll
Shibu Soren, who has become Jharkhand chief minister for the third time and had to forgo the chair last January when he lost the Tamar assembly by-poll, is determined to win this time and seems to have narrowed down the choice to two safe seats.
Once bitten, twice shy and hoping to be third time lucky. Shibu Soren, who has become Jharkhand chief minister for the third time and had to forgo the chair last January when he lost the Tamar assembly by-poll, is determined to win this time and seems to have narrowed down the choice to two safe seats.
"I can fight from any of two seats, Jama and Jamtara," Soren told reporters in Bokaro Monday.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader, who took over as chief minister on Dec 30, needs to become a member of the state assembly within six months.
Jama is represented in the assembly by his daughter-in-law by Sita Soren, the widow of his eldest son Durga who died of liver failure in May last year. Jamtara's legislator is also a member of the JMM, Vishnu Bhaiya.
JMM leaders are working hard to ensure that there is no repeat of the debacle in Tamar last year.
"Soren lost the Tamar assembly poll as Congress played dirty. The hunt is on for a safer seat for Shibu Soren. We are calculating all aspects as the Congress alliance will again try to repeat what had happened in Tamar," a senior JMM leader told IANS.
He said then alliance partner Congress had pushed Soren to fight from Tamar where the party has negligible presence.
Soren became chief minister for the first time in March 2005, for the second time in August 2008 and now for the third time in December 2009. He has been MP from Dumka on all three occasions.
