At a wedding resort “Utsav Upvan” at Giridih in Jharkhand on Thursday night, the reporters are making a beeline to interview Kalpana Soren, wife of jailed Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president and ex-chief minister Hemant Soren, who is making her electoral debut from the Gandey Assembly constituency.
Sitting inside a glass cabin at the resort owned by a JMM MLA, Kalpana seems cheerful, but during breaks she complains of being “tired” of giving interviews.
“Ma’am, 15 minutes more… the last interview would be conducted at the lawn,” says one of her media team members. Kalpana frets over it, saying she is “done for the day”.
On her campaign trail, however, Kalpana’s energy and enthusiasm seem to be boundless, turning into a leader as she reaches out to masses, especially women. Addressing public meetings, she seeks vote on the work done by her husband Hemant during his CM stint, showcasing universal pension, public housing and farm loan waiver as his “achievements”.
Kalpana highlights “injustice” meted out to Hemant “just for doing his work”. She is accompanied by the JMM leaders or ministers of the party-led Cabinet, even as her campaigning seems to have enthused the cadres of her party along with those of its INDIA bloc allies in the state.
The JMM camp says Kalpana has already visited over two-thirds of 66 panchayats in Gandey, which despite not being a reserved seat has about 26% tribal population, with OBCs and Muslims accounting for a large chunk of the remaining populace.
JMM sources said that even in many villages dominated by upper-caste Rajputs or Bhumihars, Kalpana has been able to connect with villagers by talking to them about their issues and promising their resolution. In a village, she got a dysfunctional solar-powered water pump fixed. Criss-crossing Gandey on bumpy roads, she has also identified about 100 km roads for repairs and upgrade.
On Thursday, Kalpana’s day starts at 10 am, when she meets a group of panchayat samiti members, “Poshan Sakhi” (nutrition friends), whose services have been stopped by the central government, rendering them jobless. While promising to find a solution for them, she also makes it a point to seek their support for her election.
Heading out to meet a slew of ration-dealers in the constituency, Kalpana meets a pastor and talks to him in Santali language. The pastor tells her that they are praying for her win because they believe in her “fight for the poor”.
The ration-dealers’ main grievance is that the government did not pay them a commission on extra rice that they distributed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing them, Kalpana says, “Hemant Soren did not care about his life and worked for the people during the Covid pandemic. And no one died of hunger in the state. The credit goes to you too for feeding the poor.”
Kalpana later tells The Indian Express: “I was very scared in the Covid time because Hemant used to work from a different room outside our house, and we did not even meet then.”
Proceeding to Maheshmunda village, she halts at a couple of places, where she is garlanded by local women. “You wanted me to come, so I came, but I have to visit several places. On May 20, women should step out and vote along with men,” she tells them. Sporting vermilion on their foreheads, some women in saris take out their smartphones to take her pictures and videos.
At noon, she meets the residents of Maheshmunda village under a banyan tree. From a raised platform there, one of them says this is a Bhumihar-inhabited village and that they would support her because she has visited the village. Kalpana takes up the mic, saying everyone needs to participate in the festival of democracy. “I seek your blessings for the election. You give blessings for Hemant, who was sent to jail for doing your work. He is like your brother, your son,” she says amid a loud applause from the gathering.
After a brief halt in Koridih village, Kalpana is headed to the Fulchi panchayat, where CM Champai Soren and other senior JMM leaders will be present at a rally. On the way, JMM members underline how Kalpana has created a resonance among common people, especially women.
A mother of two sons, Kalpana, 39, kept a low profile as Hemant led the JMM, especially during his second chief ministerial tenure after the party won the 2019 Assembly polls along with its Congress and RJD allies. Sources say that efforts were also made in 2019 to bring Kalpana into public life, but it did not fructify then.
On 31 December last year, senior JMM leader and Gandey MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad suddenly resigned from the Assembly, which sparked the buzz that he was made to quit to facilitate Kalpana to contest the bypoll from Gandey so that she could become the CM in the wake of any eventuality arising out of the ED’s investigations in an alleged land scam case against Hemant. The JMM later got Ahmad, a three-time MLA, elected as a Rajya Sabha member from the state.
On January 31, Hemant was arrested by the ED and he has since been in prison. JMM veteran Champai Soren took charge as the CM. Subsequently, Kalpana kept herself busy in matters relating to legal defence of Soren, deliberating with his lawyers on their course of action. The JMM leaders also started persuading her to join politics. She was initially “hesitant”, party sources said. “A close aide of JMM supremo Shibu Soren and Hemant was instrumental in making her meet party workers which made Kalpana more confident. Slowly, she got convinced and after a go-ahead from Hemant, she formally entered public life on March 3,” sources said.
She has since been at the forefront of the JMM’s campaign against the Narendra Modi government over Hemant’s imprisonment, attending three major INDIA bloc rallies held in Mumbai, Delhi and Ranchi to flag the issue.
At Fulchi, Champai’s helicopter lands. As the JMM leaders take to the stage, Kalpana greets “Champai Dada”. When her turn to address the rally comes, people cheer. Echoing the INDIA’s line, she alleges that the Modi dispensation posed a “threat” to the Constitution and democracy. “We have to fight and protect the Constitution because it ensures your rights. We have to cast our votes to protect it. Aap log larenge na, boliye, karenge na, teer dhanush bana ke boliye [Will you fight, vote, say it through your gesture showing a bow and arrow (JMM’s symbol)],” she says.
Kalpana has been widely praised for he oratorical skills. But, she downplays it. “No, even my husband is a good orator.”
It is 4.30 pm, and her convoy has reached a Rajput-dominated village in Chakradaha panchayat. Kalpana and her team stop by a house for a lunch of rice, dal and vegetables. Several local women want a picture with Kalpana, who lifts a two-year-old child, nudging her to look into the camera.
Kalpana says, “I have been a homemaker and maybe women are able to connect with me more easily. This is me, Kalpana Soren.”
Randhir Singh, the house owner, says this is the first time that a JMM programme has been held in this village. “We think this would attract people to vote in favour of Kalpana,” Singh says, indicating that her appeal may be expanding to non-tribal sections too.
Gandey falls under the Koderma parliamentary constituency, both of which are bound for polls on May 20 in the fifth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Kalpana is pitted against the BJP’s Dilip Verma, a social worker. In the 2019 Assembly polls, Ahmad had defeated the then incumbent BJP candidate Jai Prakash Verma by over 8,800 votes.
The Koderma parliamentary seat is held by the BJP’s Annapurna Devi, the Union minister, who is taking on Vinod Singh of the CPI(ML) Liberation, an ally of the INDIA bloc. In her electioneering, Kalpana is also seeking votes for Singh.
