Jharkhand transport and tribal welfare minister Champai Soren was airlifted to Chennai’s Apollo Hospital from here on a chartered plane on Monday for better treatment.

Champai is the second minister from Jharkhand to be flown to a health facility in Chennai in the three-year-old Hemant Soren government in the state.

According to Guruprasad Mahato, the minister’s personal assistant, the 66-yearold tribal leader, considered close to Hemant, had been admitted at Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur since Saturday. “He had been a diabetic for the last two decades, however, in the last few days there had been significant fluctuations in sugar level and since Saturday he also started complaining of fever.

“Neither the fever nor the sugar fluctuations could be controlled at the Tata Main Hospital prompting a decision on shifting the minister to Apollo Hospital in Chennai,” said Mahato.

Tata Main Hospital general manager Sudhir Rai refused to make any comment on the health condition of the minister.

“Since the minister has been taken to another hospital, it would not be right on my part to issue any comment on his health condition,” said Rai.

The minister who is a four-term MLA from Seraikela (in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand) reached Chennai at 5pm and was taken to Apollo hospital by a team of medical professionals.

Hemant who is in Kerala along with his family tweeted in the afternoon about the state government making arrangements for shifting Champai to Chennai for better treatment and wished for his speedy recovery.

In 2020, Jharkhand education minister Jagarnath Mahto was flown to Chennai for a lung transplant.

Mahto returned home after eight months of treatment in the Tamil Nadu capital. Mahato assumed office in 2021 but had to routinely visit the Chennai hospital for checkups.