Giridih: Sudivya Kumar Sonu, who breathed his last early Sunday morning at the age of 56, rose from being a small-time contractor at Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) to become Jharkhand’s Tourism, Urban Development and Higher Education Minister.
The youngest son of PHED engineer Shambhu Nath, Sonu started out as a contractor with CCL in Giridih and later worked with the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and a few other organisations.
In 1989, he joined the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). At a time when some politicians switched parties like clothes, he remained with the JMM until his death.
He was also jailed soon after filing his nomination for the 2009 Assembly polls. In his first Vidhan Sabha election, Sonu secured just 8,272 votes. Five years later, his vote tally jumped to 47,517, but on both occasions, he failed to win the seat.
In 2019, he tasted victory, securing 80,871 votes. In the last Assembly election, Sonu repeated the feat with 94,042 votes.
But Sonu’s political journey cannot be mapped merely by going through his election performance. Sonu was regarded as an adopted son of Shibu Soren, popularly known as Guruji, while Chief Minister Hemant Soren used to address him as “Sonu Bhaiya”. And the man who had no political backing did not become like a son to Guruji and a brother to Hemant Soren overnight. He served the JMM founder and became a shield for the chief minister.
When the Pirtand double-murder case against Shibu Soren was reopened in 2004, Sonu was the JMM district president. Though Soren, then a Union minister, had to resign because of the case, Sonu worked to ensure that Guruji got an honourable acquittal.
From Contractor to JMM’s Chanakya: Sonu’s Political Rise
By then, Sonu had become Soren’s shadow, even though he was not yet a legislator.
But when he became an MLA, he stood firmly by Hemant Soren. During Soren’s imprisonment, Sonu gave the party the idea of fielding Kalpana Soren from the safe seat of Gandey.
In the 2024 Assembly election, Sonu’s role as an election strategist—the Chanakya of the JMM—helped the INDIA bloc (Gathbandhan) secure a historic second term.
The trust Hemant Soren had in Sonu can be gauged from the four important portfolios Sonu received in 2024. During the recent JPSC and CGL examination cancellation protest, Sonu became the face of the Gathbandhan government and led from the front.
During his seven years as the MLA from Giridih, he brought several projects to the backward district, including a university, an engineering college, a zoo and biodiversity park, and a drinking-water supply project.
The Giridih MLA leaves behind his wife, two daughters and a son.
After news of his death broke, Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife and Gandey MLA Kalpana Soren, and ministers of the Jharkhand Cabinet, including Irfan Ansari, Hafizul Hassan and Deepika Pandey, rushed to pay tribute to the JMM leader.
MLAs Arup Chatterjee and Chandradeo Mahato, former MLA Vinod Singh, Union Minister and Koderma MP Annapurna Devi, as well as several leaders from different political parties, also paid their respects to the man who had emerged as the Chanakya of Jharkhand politics.
