Old friend wishes Soren well - MCC chief A.K. Roy is ready to back the chief minister on common issues PRADUMAN CHOUBEY A.K. Roy Dhanbad, Dec. 31: He may have parted ways with Shibu Soren three decades ago over ideological differences, but for Maoist Co-ordination Committee (MCC) chief and former co-founder of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) A.K. Roy, Soren is still “Guruji” and a close friend. Speaking to The Telegraph from a thatched roof room he calls office on Temple Road at Naya Bazar in Dhanbad, Roy (74) said he was confident that Soren would work for the development of the state. The MCC chief, who represented Dhanbad in the Lok Sabha thrice in 1977, 1980 and 1989, and the Sindri Assembly constituency in 1967, 1969 and 1972, said while for other leaders the relationship with the tribal community was a political one, for Soren it was personal. A former research engineer at Fertilizer Corporation of India who joined politics and formed JMM with Binod Bihari Mahto and Soren in 1973 at the golf ground in Dhanbad, Roy said Soren could have avoided certain compromises he had made in recent times. Roy, however, was hopeful that Soren would be able to have his way despite being in a coalition. The three formed JMM along the lines of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam to fight for rights of tribals in the region. Roy won the 1967 and 1969 Assembly elections from Sindri as a CPI(M) candidate before he was expelled from the party in 1972. He fought and won the 1972 Assembly elections as an Independent from the same seat. Today, Roy insists that Soren is more a social reformer than a politician who has fought landlords and other social evils including, nashabandi or detoxications camps, at Tundi in 1971. Soren also started the ratri pathshala or night schools at Tundi to impart education to the tribal masses. “Though we started JMM as a social front to take up the cause of the tribal masses, Guruji preferred to use JMM as a political platform,” said Roy without rancour. Differences between Roy and Soren arose during the 1977 elections. Soren fought from Tundi Assembly constituency as an Independent while Roy fielded Shakti Mahto as an MCC candidate from the same seat. Guruji lost in Tundi and shifted base to the tribal heartland of Dumka where he fought and won the 1980 elections on a JMM ticket. But despite the rift, Roy campaigned for Soren in Dumka. Roy said though it would be not possible to support Soren in the Assembly due to his association with different forces that had ideological differences with MCC, he would certainly support Soren where common issues were involved. There will be only one MCC MLA in the latest Assembly, Arup Chatterjee of Nirsa, who defeated BJP’s Ashok Mandal by a record 35,000 votes.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 16:12:36 +0000
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