Influential Indian tribal leader Shibu Soren dies at 81

A former federal minister, Shibu Soren represented the tribal-dominant state of Jharkhand./SCREENGRAB

Shibu Soren, a prominent Indian tribal leader and a three-time chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, has died at the age of 81.

He was undergoing treatment in Delhi for a kidney ailment and had been on life support after he suffered a stroke last month.

In a political career of more than 40 years, Soren co-founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), an influential regional party that has been at the forefront of the creation of the tribal-dominated eastern state.

He became the chief minister of Jharkhand three times, but failed to complete his any of these terms in office due to political instability in the state.

His son Hemant Soren, who is the current chief minister of Jharkhand, announced the leader's death on Monday.

"Our respected Dishom Guru has left us, I have nothing left," he wrote on X, referring to Soren by his moniker, which means "great leader" in Santhali, the language spoken by the Santhal tribe – one of India's largest tribal communities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes, calling Soren "a grassroot leader who rose through the ranks of public life with unwavering dedication to the people".

Born in 1944, Soren grew up in a small village in present-day Jharkhand at a time when the state was still a part of Bihar.

He founded the JMM in 1973 with the main objective to carve out a separate state for tribespeople from Bihar's southern districts.

After Jharkhand was granted statehood in 2000, Soren became an influential figure in the region's politics.

In 2004, he became the federal coal minister in the Congress party's cabinet but quit a few months later, after he was convicted in a murder case.

He returned to the cabinet after getting bail later that year. In 2005, he resigned from the position to become the chief minister of Jharkhand, but had to step down within 10 days after his party failed to prove its majority in the state assembly.

Soren was re-inducted into the federal government as the coal minister later that year. But he had to resign again, after he was convicted in another murder case, this time in connection with the kidnapping and murder of his personal secretary Shashinath Jha in 1994. He was eventually cleared of those charges in 2018.

On Monday, as the news of his death broke, leaders across political parties paid tributes to the leader.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called him "the pivotal figure" who led the movement for the creation of Jharkhand. "He was truly a legend whose passion for social and economic justice was inspirational," Ramesh wrote on X.

"For the people of Jharkhand, he was no less than a god," said Sanjay Raut, a member of the influential Shiv Sena (UBT) party of Maharashtra state.

Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had opposed the creation of Jharkhand state but later allied with Soren, said his death was a matter of "deep sorrow" and called him a great leader who fought for the rights of tribespeople and Dalits (formerly untouchables).