Hemant Soren is set to take over as Jharkhand Chief Minister again after the alliance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and the RJD elected him leader, paving the way for his return to the top post.

Hemant Soren had stepped down as Chief Minister in January before he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. He was granted bail last week. The JMM leader has denied all charges. Granting him bail last week, the Jharkhand High Court said there is reason to believe that he is “not guilty of the offence as alleged”.

All is, however, not well. Champai Soren, who had taken over as Chief Minister after Hemant Soren stepped down, is not happy with the decision to replace him, sources have said. Champai Soren, it is learnt, may be named JMM’s executive president.

At the meeting of JMM’s legislature party, Champai Soren said he was feeling “insulted”, the sources said. The party, however, went ahead and named Hemant Soren its legislature party leader.

Champai Soren may submit his resignation to the Governor this evening, setting in motion the process for Hemant Soren to take over.

Leaders of the ruling coalition reached a consensus on Hemant Soren’s return during a meeting at Champai Soren’s residence today. The meeting was attended by Congress’ Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir, state president Rajesh Thakur and Hemant Soren’s wife and MLA Kalpana Soren.

Speculation regarding a change of guard were triggered after all important programmes of Chief Minister Champai Soren were cancelled today.

Elections in Jharkhand are months away and the JMM is looking at fighting the polls with Hemant Soren as its face. But the decision to replace Champai Soren will provide the Opposition BJP with ammunition in the run-up to the polls and strengthen its dynasty narrative.

Setting the tone for the BJP’s offensive, Nishikant Dubey, party MP from Jharkhand’s Godda, said in a social media post that the “Champai Soren era is over in Jharkhand”.

Targeting the JMM, he said, “In the family-oriented party, people outside the family have no political future. I wish the chief minister drew inspiration from Bhagwan Birsa Munda and stood up against the corrupt Hemant Soren ji.”

Champai Soren, 67, is a veteran leader of the JMM and has been with party founder and Hemant Soren’s father Shibu Soren for decades now. Earlier, he was a cabinet minister in the Hemant Soren government.

The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD), once the BJP’s friend in need whose support helped several contentious Bills clear Rajya Sabha during Modi 2.0, were on the other side today. The party’s nine MPs joined the Opposition’s walkout during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.

The walkout in the Upper House today followed the Prime Minister’s swipe at former UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. “These people are used to running the government on auto pilot and remote pilot. They don’t believe in working, they just know how to wait,” he said, triggering loud protests from the Opposition.

Opposition MPs led by Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge requested Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for permission to intervene, but the Chair responded that their conduct was “inappropriate”.

As the Opposition members walked out, MPs of the BJD joined them.

Over the past one year, the Naveen Patnaik-led party has gone from backing the BJP on contentious Bills in Rajya Sabha to almost forging an alliance with the BJP ahead of the state and Lok Sabha polls to losing power in Odisha to the BJP. The party scored a blank in Lok Sabha election — losing 12 seats in the House — and ended up in the Opposition after Mr Patnaik’s 24-year uninterrupted stint as Chief Minister of the eastern state.

Some of the key issues and legislation on which the BJP government had received the BJD’s support were the Centre’s move to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories, amendments to anti-terror law UAPA and Right To Information Act, and the law that gave Delhi Lieutenant Governor full control on the capital’s officials.

Throughout this time, the BJD had maintained that it was equidistant from the BJP and the Congress and was only extending issue-based support to the Centre.

However, weeks after the BJP dealt his party a massive defeat, Mr Patnaik asked BJD’s nine Rajya Sabha MPs to emerge as a “vibrant and strong” opposition.

According to a PTI report, BJD’s leader in the Upper House Sasmit Patra said that the party’s MPs are determined to agitate if the Centre ignores Odisha’s interests. “The BJD MPs this time will not be confined to speaking on issues only, but are determined to agitate if the BJP-led government at the Centre ignores Odisha’s interests.” He said Mr Patnaik has given clear instructions to BJD MPs to fight for the rights of the state’s people in the Parliament.

“No more support to BJP, only opposition. We may go to any extent to protect the interests of Odisha. The BJD president asked us to act as a strong and vibrant opposition if the NDA government continues to ignore the genuine demands of Odisha,” Mr Patra told PTI.

After leaving Barbados for their much-anticipated return to home, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, in a first, invited the team fans to join the victory parade at Marine Drive and at the Wankhede Stadium.