Champai Soren to join BJP on Aug 30: Himanta

New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Monday that former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren will join the BJP.

Sarma said Soren will join the party on August 30 in Ranchi.

He posted a picture of Soren meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah here. Sarma, who is the BJP’s co-incharge for the Jharkhand assembly polls, was also part of the meeting.

Sharing a picture of Champai Soren meeting Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, Sarma said in a post on X, “Former Chief Minister of Jharkhand and a distinguished Adivasi leader of our country, @ChampaiSoren Ji met Hon’ble Union Home Minister @AmitShah Ji a short while ago. He will officially join the @BJP4India on 30th August in Ranchi.”

Recently, there were speculation about him over switching from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) after he visited Delhi with some MLAs on August 18.

Later on August 18, he issued a statement on X  stating that he felt “pained” by his own people when his programs were cancelled three days before the meeting where he was asked to resign as the Chief Minister.

He had said in the statement that he had three options before him: retirement from politics, floating a new party or joining another “companion”.

However, he later said on August 21 that he won’t retire  from politics. “I will either strengthen a new organisation or find support in another friend on the way,” Champai Soren had said.

Notably, Champai Soren, 67, became Jharkhand Chief Minister after Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 in an alleged land scam case.

He stepped down from the post on July 3 after Hemant Soren was granted bail by Jharkhand High Court.