It is official now. Kalpana Soren, the wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, will be the INDIA bloc candidate from the JMM against the BJP’s Dilip Verma for the Gandey bypoll scheduled on May 20.

Ever since Kalpana made her entry into the political arena addressing a gathering of JMM workers at Giridih on March 4 in Jharkhand, several JMM senior leaders had indicated her candidature for the Gandey bypoll which was officially announced by JMM general secretary Vinod Pandey on Thursday evening.

“This would herald her entry into the Jharkhand Assembly. However, as of now she would be a MLA and there are no plans to disturb the current chief minister Champai Soren, also a loyalist of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren,” said a senior leader considered close to Hemant.

Hemant was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31 night after his resignation before the governor over an alleged money laundering charge on land scam. He is currently under judicial custody at the Ranchi Central Jail. Champai was sworn in as the chief minister in February. In fact, Hemant before his arrest had made Champai the leader of the JMM legislative party paving the way for his nomination as chief minister.

The bypoll for the Gandey Assembly seat became necessary as it fell vacant following the resignation of the JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad on December 31. Sarfaraz Ahmad was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the INDIA bloc in March.

“Kalpana Soren has already started campaigning in Gandey. However, the battle would be easy against Dilip Verma, the BJP Kisan Morcha district president, who had last contested on a JVM ticket from Gandey in 2019 without much success. Kalpana has been made the star campaigner for the JMM and will be campaigning for the JMM candidates in the five Lok Sabha seats,” said the senior JMM leader.