At 70, Shibu Soren joins internet to take on BJP

RANCHI: The man who once roared like a lion in the forests of Jharkhand against the oppression of moneylenders now purrs before his granddaughters learning the nuances of the new technology. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren, revered as "'guruji" by his followers, and who has always spoken about 'jal, jungle aur zameen' as bulwarks of tribal identity, has in recent days joined the digital world. Led by his grand daughters, Soren, 70, is learning that social media is a more efficient way to connect with people than the traditional man-to-man contact during political campaigns.

Guruji now has home-grown gurus in the form of his grand daughters Jayashree, Rajashree and Vijayshree who have succeeded in convincing "baba" about the importance of new-age communication gizmos. While the eldest, Jayashree, spends time with soren whenever he is in Ranchi, the youngest, Vijayashree, talks to him about Facebook and Twitter, smart phones and laptops, whenever she finds an opportunity.

JMM sources said Soren was reluctant about the party treading on the lines of other political parties by copying their ways of campaign.

"Guruji believes in tradition and for him there could be no alternate to man-to-man contact," said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya, explaining how the transformation in his thinking came about.

It was only after watching photographs and videos related to the tribal movement of 1960s and 70s that he grew interested in IT-enabled facilities. "We dug out some stuff from the party's archive which was shown to Guruji by his granddaughters and the child in him emerged," Bhattacharya said.

"Have you done something for the villages where there were no roads? Have you done something for the people there?" were some of the questions Soren asked after viewing the old photographs, indicating he was preparing to embrace change.

JMM launched its digital platform in September this year. His son and CM, Hemant Soren, has a Facebook account which he used to connect to people. Party insiders said Hemant was always eager to embrace technology but it was only after Guruji's nod that the party began going digital in a big way.

With a toll free number 18002009621 and active website jharkhandmuktimorcha.org the party has plans to counter BJP's high tech campaign by introducing LED fitted and satellite linked campaign vehicles that would live cast the speeches of Soren and his son at 25 different locations simultaneously.