The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and JMM’s Hemant Soren has put their wives in the limelight. Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren have become important faces in the INDIA camp in the absence of their spouses during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, hinting that they are ready for larger political roles.

They joined other INDIA bloc leaders at a rally in Ranchi yesterday, which saw the opposition camp launch a fierce attack on the BJP for allegedly misusing central agencies to harass opposition-ruled states.

Two chairs were left empty on stage for Mr Kejriwal and Mr Soren – with their name tags on – as their spouses were seated on the dais.

The ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’, organised by the JMM amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, served as a major show of strength that saw the leaders of 28 political parties in attendance, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Tejashwi Yadav, Bhagwant Mann, and Akhilesh Yadav.

Sunita Kejriwal, lashing out at the government in her speech, alleged that her diabetic husband was being denied insulin in jail, a claim earlier made by the Aam Aadmi Party.

“They want to kill my husband Arvind Kejriwal. His food is under camera observation; he is denied insulin. My husband is a sugar patient who has been on insulin for the last 12 years; he needs 50 units of insulin daily,” she said at the rally.

Claiming that no charges could be proved against her husband, she asserted that they will win their “fight against dictatorship”. “The gates of jail will break and Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren will come out,” asserted Ms Kejriwal.

Ms Soren also accused the BJP of trying to topple governments in states where opposition parties are in power, which she claimed led to the arrest of Mr Kejriwal and Mr Soren just before the elections.

At the rally, she also read out a message from her husband: “Central agencies such as the ED and CBI are being misused to suppress the opposition’s voice but BJP and such forces will be driven out.”

Mr Kejriwal was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the liquor policy scam. He remains the Chief Minister even after his arrest with the AAP asserting no law stops him from running the government from jail.

Mr Soren had resigned from the top post before his arrest in January by the ED in a laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. JMM leader Champai Soren replaced him as the Chief Minister in February amid speculations that Ms Soren could take over her husband’s post.

Ranchi:

Two empty chairs – one each for jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren – were kept on stage as the INDIA bloc organised a mega rally in Ranchi on Sunday.

The ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’ was organised mainly by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and a large number of its workers wore Mr Soren’s masks.

Mr Soren was arrested on January 31 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. The same central agency also arrested Mr Kejriwal on March 21 associated with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam.

Though chairs for the JMM executive president and AAP supremo were kept empty, their wives Kalpana Soren and Sunita Kejriwal were seated on the dais. They are apparently set for their larger political role following the arrest of their spouses.

INDIA परिवार ने अपने वरिष्ठ नेताओं के प्रति दिखाया सम्मान

Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal जी व Jharkhand के पूर्व CM @HemantSorenJMM जी के लिए मंच पर आरक्षित रखी कुर्सियां।#UlgulanNyayMahaRallypic.twitter.com/DCYGyDZaJ6

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 21, 2024

The crowd raised slogans like “Jail ka tala tutega, Hemant Soren chutega” (The jail lock will be broken, Hemant Soren will be released) and “Jharkhand Jhukega Nahi” (Jharkhand will not bow down).”

The workers assembled for the ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’ braving scorching heat as the Jharkhand capital’s temperature was hovering around 40 degrees Celcius.

Besides Kalpana and Sunita, JMM supremo Shibu Soren, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and others attended the rally in a mega show of strength for the opposition bloc.

A total of 28 political parties took part in the rally, which was held at the Prabhat Tara Ground.

The word ‘Ulugulan’, which means revolution, was coined during Birsa Munda’s fight against the British for the rights of the tribals.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The wives of jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his former counterpart from Jharkhand, Hemant Soren, who is also in jail, met in Delhi today amid speculation that Sunita Kejriwal may take over the top post.

Kalpana Soren and Sunita Kejriwal hugged and greeted each other on camera, in what was seen as a show of strength against what the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) call the Centre’s misuse of probe agencies to weaken the Opposition just before the Lok Sabha elections.

“Despite the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal ji and Hemant Soren ji by the dictatorial government, they (the two women) are standing strong and fighting with the people of their respective states,” the AAP said in a post on the microblogging website X.

झारखंड के पूर्व CM Hemant Soren की धर्मपत्नी कल्पना सोरेन जी @KejriwalSunita जी से उनके आवास पर मिलीं

जो तानाशाह सरकार द्वारा Arvind Kejriwal जी और Hemant Soren जी की गिरफ़्तारी के बावज़ूद अपने-अपने राज्यों की जनता के साथ मज़बूती से खड़ी हैं और लड़ाई लड़ रही हैं। pic.twitter.com/Kvmbz92SNX

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 30, 2024

Showing her support to Sunita Kejriwal and her family, Kalpana Soren said the same incident that happened in Jharkhand has happened in Delhi, too, referring to the arrest of her husband.

“After arresting my husband Hemant Soren ji, Arvind Kejriwal ji has been arrested. The whole of Jharkhand stands with Sunita Kejriwal ji. We have shared each other’s pain. And we have decided that together we will take this fight forward,” Kalpana Soren told reporters after reaching Delhi.

जो घटना झारखंड में 2 महीने पहले हुई, वही घटना दिल्ली में हुई है

मेरे पति हेमंत सोरेन जी को गिरफ़्तार करने के बाद Arvind kejriwal जी को गिरफ़्तार किया गया है

पूरा झारखंड @KejriwalSunita जी के साथ है। हमने एक दूसरे का दुख बाँटा है।

हमने फैसला किया है कि हम मिलकर इस लड़ाई को… pic.twitter.com/7gwFnmaBDu

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 30, 2024

While Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged money laundering in framing the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case, Hemant Soren was taken into custody for alleged involvement in a Rs 600 crore land scam.

Longtime JMM leader Champai Soren took over the Chief Minister’s post after the ED arrested Hemant Soren.

Sunita Kejriwal earlier this week in video announcements on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal launched a campaign, “Kejriwal ko aashirwad”, and asked people to share messages on a WhatsApp number that she gave.

The video provoked a response from the ruling BJP, with Union Minister Hardeep Puri saying Sunita Kejriwal “is preparing for the role of Chief Minister”.

Sunita Kejriwal is a former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer who served in the income tax department for 22 years. She met Arvind Kejriwal during a training programme in Bhopal. She is from the 1994 batch, while Arvind Kejriwal is a 1995-batch officer.

She took voluntary retirement in 2016. Her last posting was at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Delhi where she served as the income tax commissioner.

Ranchi:

The political split in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) first family is out in the open as party founder Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren switched to the BJP today, accusing the JMM leadership of neglecting her. This coincides with the other bahu in the family, Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana, emerging as the party’s voice as it gears up for the Lok Sabha polls.

On January 31, amid speculation that Hemant Soren could make way for wife Kalpana to take over as Chief Minister if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved to arrest him, his sister-in-law and three-time MLA Sita had said Kalpana has “no political experience”.

Days later, Champai Soren, a trusted aide of the JMM first family, took over as Jharkhand Chief Minister. A month later, the party chose Kalpana Soren to address the mega INDIA rally in Mumbai that marked the end of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra this Sunday.

Sharing stage with heavyweight leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray and Tejashwi Yadav, the 48-year-old delivered a confident speech, urging voters to rise against a “dictatorial power”. “In Maharashtra, people were bought to topple the government. But in Jharkhand, MLAs of the alliance showed that power that it cannot shake our government. A conspiracy was hatched to put my husband in jail. In the coming days, many other names will come up. I want to tell those dictatorial forces, INDIA will not bow down.”

She also thanked Rahul Gandhi for starting his yatra from Manipur. “He chose Manipur when it was burning. I am saying this as a tribal. At that time, there was no one to take note of Manipur. Even today, the Centre and the state government are silent.”

Kalpana Soren, who holds engineering and MBA degrees, had largely stayed away from political limelight before her husband Hemant Soren was arrested in a money laundering case. The former Jharkhand Chief Minister has denied the allegations against him and has accused the ruling BJP at the Centre of political vendetta.

In the days before Hemant Soren’s arrest, there was speculation that Kalpana Soren may take his place. But later, Champai Soren’s name emerged. The BJP had then claimed that a majority of JMM legislators were against Kalpana Soren’s elevation as Chief Minister.

Following his arrest, Kalpana Soren started managing Hemant Soren’s Twitter handle and articulating the party’s position in public meetings. The party, it is evident, wants to play the public sympathy card in the upcoming polls by making her the face of its campaign. The JMM is yet to name its candidates for Lok Sabha polls, and Kalpana Soren is being seen as a probable.

Meanwhile, Sita Soren has pulled the plug. Two days after her sister-in-law’s speech at the Mumbai rally, she quit as MLA, resigned from JMM and joined the BJP. In her resignation letter addressed to party chief and her father-in-law Shibu Soren, she mentioned that her husband and Hemant Soren’s elder brother, late Durga Soren, played an active role in the Jharkhand statehood movement.

She said since his death, she and her family had been neglected. “Members of the party and the family distanced us and this has been very painful,” she wrote, adding that JMM had changed and was now controlled by people whose values don’t match with hers. She also alleged a conspiracy against her. “I served the party for 14 years, but to date, I have not received the respect that I should have,” the three-time MLA from Jharkhand’s Jama said.

Speaking to NDTV after joining BJP, she said, “The party gave me no portfolio, but I walked along. But this cannot go on. And I believe lotus will bloom on all 14 seats of Jharkhand. Despite being loyal to the party, I could not work freely.” Asked if she had raised her concerns with the JMM leadership and Hemant Soren, she said, “I raised it multiple times, but he would only give assurances and do nothing.” Sita Soren termed Champai Soren, the new Chief Minister, a “rubber stamp”.

The JMM has termed the big exit as “unfortunate”. Party leader Manoj Pandey said Sita Soren was considered an important member of the party. “The kind of respect she has received from this party, I don’t think she will get anywhere else. If she comes under the influence of people opposing us, she will sabotage herself.”