Soren had suffered a serious brain injury and blood clot after slipping and falling in the bathroom and was airlifted to Delhi’s Apollo Hospital for emergency treatment on August 2. Since then he was on life support. A multidisciplinary team of senior specialists was closely monitoring his condition and providing intensive medical care. Education and Literacy Department responsibilities were reassigned to Sudivya Kumar Sonu during the Monsoon Session following Soren’s illness.

A grassroots leader and a senior face of the JMM, Soren was extremely popular among the tribal community and party workers. He will be remembered for his unwavering dedication to public service.

Soren, who was born in East Singhbhum district’s Ghorabanda village on January 1, 1963, hailed from a middle-class farmers’ family.

He began his political journey as the gram pradhan of the Ghorabanda panchayat, eventually rising to become one of the most influential ministers in the Hemant Soren-led cabinet.

He became Jamshedpur East president of JMM in 1990.

He then moved to Ghatshila and started preparing to contest from there in the 2005 Assembly polls. But the seat went to the Congress, which was an alliance partner of the JMM. Then, he contested the polls as an independent candidate but lost.

Father of three sons and a daughter, Soren contested the 2009 Assembly polls from Ghatshila and became a member of the Jharkhand Assembly for the first time.

Though he lost the seat in 2014 to BJP’s Lakshman Tudu, he made a strong comeback in 2019, reclaiming the seat.

Soren won the seat for the third time in 2024 by defeating BJP’s Babulal Soren, son of former CM Champai Soren.

He was inducted into the state Cabinet on August 30, after Champai Soren resigned as minister and MLA.

— With PTI