Shibu Soren
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A brief biography
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August 5, 2025: The Times of India
Born on Jan 11, 1944, in Nemra village of undivided Bihar’s Hazaribag district, Shibu found his calling as a champion of the underprivileged, especially tribal communities, after his father was allegedly murdered by moneylenders. The tragedy ignited in Shibu, who was 15 at the time, the determination to embark on a lifelong battle against whatever he believed was exploitation or injustice.
At 18, he established Santhal Navyuvak Sangh and, in the late 1960s, founded an ashram in Dhanbad’s Tundi. By now, his presence was enough to strike fear in moneylenders and landlords accused of exploiting tribals.
As his influence grew, especially among the ST and SC communities, Shibu’s mission extended to chasing “dikus” (outsiders) from the tribal heartland. On Jan 23, 1975, he allegedly led a mob of tribals to Chirudih village in Jamtara district, leading to violence in which 11 lives were lost. A murder case was registered in which he was named as an accused, leading him to go underground for a while. A Jamtara district court acquitted him later, citing lack of evidence.
In 1972, Shibu joined forces with A K Roy, Binod Bihari Mahato and others to form JMM and become its general secretary. He was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1980 as an Independent candidate from Dumka in Santhal Parganas. In 1986, he became JMM president, a position he held for 39 years until April 15 this year, when son Hemant succeeded him.
Shibu contested the Lok Sabha election from Dumka 11 times, winning on eight occasions — in 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, the 2002 bypoll, 2004, 2009 and 2014. His last electoral loss, in 2019, was to BJP’s Sunil Soren.
Shibu’s first major political setback came when he, along with three other MPs, was charged with accepting bribes to vote in favour of the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress govt during a trust vote in 1992. The JMM bribery case remains a political hot potato.
In 2004, Shibu became coal minister in the then Manmohan Singh govt, only to resign soon after when a warrant linked to the Chirudih killings was issued against him. He rejoined the Union Cabinet in Oct that year, continuing till March 2005. He stepped down to take over as CM of Jharkhand, but failed to prove his majority.
Shibu returned to the Union Cabinet in 2006, but the stint didn’t last long this time either. In Oct that year, he was convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of his personal secretary, Shashinath Jha.
Delhi high court acquitted him in 2007, and he was also cleared in the Chirudih case for lack of evidence. Shibu’s three stints as CM were all for less than a year, with the first one in 2005 lasting a mere 10 days. The second term lasted from Aug 27, 2008, to Jan 19, 2009, and the third from Dec 30, 2009, to June 1, 2010. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha and close to RJD president Lalu Prasad, with whom he snapped political ties after the latter opposed the move to create Jharkhand.
Career
As in 2019
Chandrima Banerjee, May 5, 2019: The Times of India
The Guruji who can win big without holding poll rallies DUMKA: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) does not put up too many hoardings and barely any posters. It doesn't need to. In rural pockets of east Jharkhand, all election talk revolves around one word: 'Guruji.' Eight-time MP from Dumka, which goes to the polls in the final phase on May 19, and three-time CM Shibu Soren did not ask a question, participate in any debate or introduce any bill in his latest stint as member of the 16th Lok Sabha. He is in the winter of his political career. Yet he is the sole custodian of his party's political capital.
"Here, Modi can do nothing to us," the 74-year-old JMM president tells TOI. "The only way to prepare for an election is to go among people, meet them. Nothing else matters," he adds. He throws his house open and meets people twice a day. Cyclone Fani has just made landfall, and public announcements urging people to stay indoors fill the air. But at least 100 people have turned up at his doorstep. His political standing defied a resurgent Indira Gandhi in 1980 and the Modi wave of 2014 - even as BJP won 12 of 14 seats in the state, JMM won two of the three in tribal-dominated Santhal pargana. In between, he became the face of tribal leadership in Delhi, got charged with and acquitted of murder, and made friends (or rivals) on both sides.
"Guruji is more than a political leader. He gave tribals a voice," says Vinod Pandey, general secretary of JMM. It is under Pandey's watchful eyes that the few public meetings addressed by Soren are convened. Soren does not oversee party functioning any more. He does not address meetings for longer than a few minutes. Party functionaries repeatedly refer to his "health" and "need to rest". He is present at party events, but is mostly quiet.
So, is he preparing to hang up his boots? Soren responds with a resounding 'no.' "I will keep contesting elections as long as I'm alive," he says.
His son Hemant explains the tribal stalwart's low-key appearances this time. "It's about how you treat your own people. BJP has created a cold storage for its senior leaders - the 'Margdarshak mandal.' Not us. For decades, Guruji sought votes and made leaders of us. This time, we thought we should go out and seek votes for him," he says.
Hemant is the accidental heir; he greets those who have turned up to see Soren, meets them one by one and gives them a patient hearing. "I entered politics by chance. My elder brother (Durga) was actively into politics, but he got killed. Father fell ill around the same time. Everything was crumbling. Things moved fast and, before I knew it, I became an MP (in Rajya Sabha). It takes years for people to ascend the political steps I did in a short time," says the 43-year-old JMM working president and leader of opposition in the Jharkhand assembly.
Also a former CM himself, Hemant feels Soren's political legacy cannot really be inherited, even by endorsement. "No one has the power Guruji does. I will find out now if some of that power has been transferred to me," he notes.
Soren had styled JMM as a tribal party, leading "antioutsider" movements in his early days. Hemant has a different vision. "JMM works for the marginalised, the oppressed, not just for tribals. Under BJP, many communities have been targeted. We stand by them," he says. BJP candidate Sunil Soren had put up a tough fight against Shibu Soren last time, losing by just over 39,000 votes.
"JMM created him (Sunil was with the party till 2004). Every leader who's made a mark in Jharkhand was created here. It won't make a difference," Soren said.
