Shibu Soren arrives in Bokaro on a chartered plane on Thursday. Picture by Pankaj Singh

Ranchi, May 21: The sudden demise of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren’s eldest son and party general secretary, Durga Soren, is sure to throw up new challenges for the JMM, which is still reeling from the drubbing it faced in the Lok Sabha elections.

Ironically, many will insist that part of the blame for the JMM’s poor show must go to Durga because of his decision to go against his father’s wishes and contest the Godda seat in defiance of the pre-poll agreement the JMM had struck with the Congress.

But there are those who will admit, albeit grudgingly, that after Soren, like it or not, Durga was the JMM’s only other leader who commanded a following in the grassroots.

JMM seniors did not take kindly to his Godda misadventure, but Durga himself spared no effort to campaign in Dumka, Godda and Hazaribagh to try and revive the party’s image.

“Durga believed that JMM supporters always played a decisive role in Jharkhand politics. Despite being disowned by his father under Congress pressure, he ensured Shibu Soren’s success in Dumka and Jamtara,” commented Durga’s close aide, B. Pandey.

Till now, it was Durga who seemed to be calling the shots in his father’s absence — Soren missed the poll campaign as his illness had confined him to a hospital bed, and ultimately he had to undergo a bypass operation.

Soren’s press adviser, Shafiq Ansari, said Durga was undoubtedly the second most popular leader in JMM after Soren.

“He took care of party matters in his father’s absence in his own way. At times, he antagonised many party heavyweights and even cultivated new foes,” he admitted.

Senior BJP leader Arjun Munda, who began his political career with the JMM, said he remembered Durga as a soft spoken, intelligent boy. “While getting involved in power politics, he unknowingly ventured into many things… His death is a personal loss to me as I have been associated with the Soren family closely.”

JMM central committee member M.K. Thakur said Durga was able to judge an individual’s “real intentions” at one glance.

“That was his strength. He was opposed to the tie-up with the Congress. He felt a section of party members and other state politicians were trying to take advantage of his father’s illness,” he said.

“The shock is terrible for us to bear. We weren’t worried as long as Durga was in the ‘driver’s seat’,” said Sudhir Mahto, former deputy chief minister and senior JMM leader, before leaving for New Delhi.

Soren, who is getting old and has just come out of a bypass surgery, will now have to depend more on his younger son, Hemant, who will automatically play a more decisive role in party affairs — in fact, it was he who accompanied his father to New Delhi during the Congress’s meeting with its pre-poll allies.