Shibu Soren, Indian polity's great bargainer

POLITICAL CAREER: Soren had to resign again in November 2006 after a Delhi court convicted him in a murder case.

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New Delhi: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren has reportedly been offered a berth in the Cabinet – the portfolio of Coal Minister, sources say – his son has been offered the Deputy CM-ship of Jharkhand by the Manmohan Singh Government.

From being a regional leader to a murder accused to a Member of Parliament and Union Minister to again being a Cabinet hopeful, Soren keeps moving in circles.

Born into a Santhal family in Hazaribagh district, 63-year-old Soren arrived on the political stage with a demand for an independent Jharkhand state. He founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, in 1972 and first entered Lok Sabha in 1980. Twenty-years later, Jharkhand was a reality.

The formation of Jharkhand state was a defining moment in Shibu Soren's life. But ironically people don’t remember him for that. In fact Soren and his party's name has become synonymous with the bribery case of 1993 , when he along with four other MPs took money to vote in Parliament.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Soren even spent four months in Delhi's Tihar Jail but was let off later. In 1999 the JMM had a vertical split. In 2004, Soren made a comeback of sorts, when he joined the Manmohan Singh Cabinet.

However, Soren had to resign in July 2004, after a court issued a non-bailable warrant against him in a 20-year-old murder case. The master of comebacks, Soren was re-inducted in the Cabinet as Coal Minister in November, the same year.

Three-months later Shibu was sworn in as Jharkhand CM, only to return to the Union Cabinet after his Government failed the floor test.

Soren had to resign again in November 2006 after a Delhi court convicted him in the 1994 case of murder of his private secretary.

The Delhi High Court once again let him off the hook in August 2007. Soren, however was not third time lucky, as he did not find a berth in the Government, when the Cabinet was last expanded.

And with offers of Cabinet posting pouring in ahead of the confidence vote, life seems to have come full circle for Soren, yet again.

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