NEW DELHI: After the arrest of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren by Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) informal transfer of leadership to his wife Kalpana Soren is seen to have gained the party better connect with the Congress leadership in the state, according to top leaders in Jharkhand.
The Congress leaders feel that her ascension has made things better for the alliance and also eased the communication process between the two major alliance partners in the state. A top leader, who has been part of the joint meetings, headed by Kalpana Soren, between the alliance partners in Jharkhand said, “She listens to us and seeks feedback from us and then she forms her understanding based on our feedback. And her decisions reflect that our opinions, our views and our feedbacks have been taken into consideration.
What more does a leader want?”
The reason, political observers believe, for her considerate politics in the alliance is that she is new to the handling of politics and knows that she doesn’t have immediate experience of how much to keep her party’s interests in view (without disruptions) while making decisions. She also doesn’t know how her independent decisions can be taken by the rank and file. Although the subordinates in the organisational hierarchy will adhere to the instructions by the new chief (Kalpana Soren), but she will always be advised to be cautious in a way that there is no formation of administrative bumps ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Also, the Congress leadership in the state suggests that the current JMM management understands the merit of the national party in general elections and therefore the state party has been respectful of the grand old party’s high command and its instructions. A senior Congress leader said, “When it is evident that they are respecting our national leaders, naturally there would be respect emerging from the state cadre for them as well.”
He added, “She involves few people while making decisions and if the meetings require to have alliance partners on the table she would include the Congress leadership as well. She is taking mind from everyone. Hemant Soren was another thing. This could benefit the party.”
Apart from that, her coming out in poll campaigning has also stirred up an emotional connect of the electorate with the party. It is seen to have given her two-sided sympathy wave–one from the arrest of her husband Hemant Soren and another of being a woman.
A Congress leader in Jharkhand said, “The people get easily influenced when a woman comes out to tell them how the ruling dispensation at the centre has unkindly dealt with her husband.”
A political analyst said, “There is a threat to her party’s existence after her husband and ex CM Hemant Soren was arrested so she must be thinking on lines on how the opposition bloc can be strengthened against the saffron camp rather than strengthening her own party and eating up the space of Congress in the state.”