Veteran Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren passed away on Monday morning following a prolonged illness.
Soren, 81, breathed his last at 8.56 am at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, where he had been on the life support system for the last one month.
The veteran Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader was suffering from a kidney ailment, and had suffered a stroke, a month and a half back, the hospital said in a statement, adding he was on ventilator for the last one month.
“It is with deep sorrow we confirm that Shibu Soren was declared dead this morning after prolonged illness,” said A.K. Bhalla, chair of the hospital’s nephrology department.
Confirming the news, his son and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren wrote in a post on X, “Respected Guru Dishom has left us all. Today, I feel hollow.”
आदरणीय दिशोम गुरुजी हम सभी को छोड़कर चले गए हैं।
आज मैं शून्य हो गया हूँ…
— Hemant Soren (@HemantSorenJMM) August 4, 2025
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the party he founded, said that Soren’s death marked the end of an era.
“It is not just a leader who has left us—a legendary figure, Dishom Guru, a guide, the soul of Jharkhand—Honorable Shibu Soren ji has left us all and merged into the lap an of nature. This is not just mourning; it is the end of an era,” the JMM said in a statement.
The Jharkhand government has announced official mourning and is expected to hold a state funeral with full honours.
Soren had been in critical condition for the last one month after being shifted to Delhi for advanced care. His son Hemant, daughter-in-law Kalpana Soren, and younger son Basant Soren were by his side.
Earlier this week, President Droupadi Murmu and Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar had visited the hospital to enquire about his condition.
Born in 1944 in Nemra village of Ramgarh district (then part of Bihar), Shibu Soren emerged as a grassroots tribal leader in the 1970s and became the face of the movement for a separate state of Jharkhand.
Soren served as Jharkhand’s Chief Minister on three occasions and was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times.