TMC Fielded Padma Shri Recipient Kalipada Soren From Jhargram Constituency (Image: Anandbazar)
For his contributions to literature and education, Kalipada Soren, better known as Kherwal Soren, was honored with the Padma Shri Award last year. For the forthcoming 18th Lok Sabha, Soren was given the opportunity to run for office from his home constituency of Jhargram by TMC. He is going to run for a political office for the first time with this nomination. As per the Election Commission of India schedule, elections for the Jhargram constituency in West Bengal will be conducted on May 25, 2024.
Kalipada Soren is a famous Santali language poet of Jhargram. Santali is one of India’s 22 scheduled languages and also an official language of West Bengal. For his work translating literature into Santali, Soren has won numerous accolades, including the esteemed Sahitya Akademi Award and the state government”s Bangavibhushan Award. His creative creations have been exceptional in their use of words to express social themes. His love of writing drove him to quit his work at a bank in the city and move back to the village.
Though, Kalipada Soren is fighting elections for the first time however this is not the start of his political career. He first joined the BJP in 2019 and then the Trinamool Congress a year later. Despite allegedly joining several parties, he never took an active position in politics. In a previous interview, he described politics as a complex issue. Kalipada is singing songs in the Santali language as part of his electoral campaign.
What do the numbers say about the Jhargram constituency?
The Jhargram seat is reserved for the scheduled tribes. Noticeably, there are seven assembly segments of the constituency which lies in Jhargram district, Paschim Medinipur district and Purulia district. Presently all the state assembly seats of the constituency are occupied by TMC candidates. However, since 1977 till 2014, the constituency has been a CPI stronghold. It was in 2014, when a TMC candidate won election and in 2019 BJP candidate got success.
In 2019, BJP registered a noticeable 34.83 percent increase in the vote share, whereas TMC lost over 10 percent vote share during the general elections. Notably, Jhargram seat was earlier won by the BJP candidate Kumar Hembram in 2019.
The constituency has a significant SC, ST and Muslim population which is 18.54%, 23.1% and 4.1% respectively. The total voters turn out in the constituency was 83.33 percent. According to a study conducted by Koushik Das Malakar, this is socio-economically a backward region with dark underdevelopment areas. Standard of living and life expectancy is also very low here.
