Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, wife Kalpana meet Sonia Gandhi

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren met Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Saturday, days after he took charge of the post again.

Accompanied by his wife Kalpana, Hemant Soren met Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence in New Delhi.

Describing the meeting as a courtesy call, Soren said he had come to meet Gandhi as they had not met her after the Lok Sabha elections and since he came out of jail.

"Discussions for Jharkhand Assembly elections will continue...there was no discussion about polls," Soren said when asked whether the upcoming assembly polls in Jharkhand were discussed with Gandhi.

"Indians are very sensitive and tolerant. They tolerate a lot until they cannot and then they make themselves heard by voting," he told reporters after meeting Gandhi.

He also hoped that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal would be granted bail soon.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president had resigned as the chief minister before his arrest on 31 January by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

After spending around five months in prison, he secured bail and became chief minister again on 4 July.

While granting him bail, the Jharkhand High Court has held that prima facie he is not guilty of the offence and there is no likelihood that he would commit an offence while on bail.

The JMM and the Congress are alliance partners in the Soren-led government. Assembly elections in the state are scheduled to take place later in 2024.