lit a candle 8 Sept 2026I was reading about the 2024 bypoll campaign when I saw the news. Sonu Bhaiya helped Kalpana Soren find her voice in politics when it mattered most. Jharkhand has lost someone who believed in loyalty and in people over transactions. Rest well.
Their story
Sudivya Kumar, widely known across Jharkhand as Sudivya Kumar Sonu or simply Sonu, was a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha organiser who spent nearly four decades inside one party before dying suddenly as a sitting cabinet minister. He was born on 26 July 1970. Sources disagree on the exact birth district: Wikipedia…
Sudivya Kumar, widely known across Jharkhand as Sudivya Kumar Sonu or simply Sonu, was a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha organiser who spent nearly four decades inside one party before dying suddenly as a sitting cabinet minister. He was born on 26 July 1970. Sources disagree on the exact birth district: Wikipedia lists Giridih (then in Bihar), while PTI obituaries place his birth in Dhanbad. What is not disputed is that his adult political identity was forged in Giridih and in the orbit of JMM founder Shibu Soren.
He was the youngest son of PHED engineer Shambhu Nath. In a later interview he said generations of his family had been salaried government employees, and that he was the first to enter politics. After Intermediate studies at D.S. College, Purnia, Bihar (1986), declared as 12th Pass on successive election affidavits, he worked as a small-time contractor linked to Central Coalfields Limited in Giridih and later with Damodar Valley Corporation and other organisations. Classmates' taunts in North Bihar about being from Jharkhand, and a formative meeting with Shibu Soren around 1989-90, pushed him into the Jharkhand statehood movement. He joined the JMM in 1989 and, unusually in a fluid party system, stayed until his death.
Party workers and later profiles described him as close enough to Soren to be treated almost as an adopted son, while Chief Minister Hemant Soren publicly called him Sonu Bhaiya. When the Pirtand double-murder case against Shibu Soren was reopened in 2004, Sonu was JMM district president and worked for Soren's acquittal. Around 2004-05, Shibu Soren visited the family home in Dhanbad and reassured Sudivya's father, ending years of domestic opposition to his political life; Shambhu Nath died in 2023.
Electoral success came slowly. Soon after filing nomination for the 2009 Assembly election he was jailed; he finished sixth in Giridih with only 8,272 votes. In 2014 his tally rose to 47,517, still short of victory against BJP's Nirbhay Kumar Shahabadi. In 2019 he finally won Giridih with 80,871 votes, defeating Shahabadi by about 15,884 votes. He retained the seat in 2024 with 94,042 votes to Shahabadi's 90,204, a narrower margin of 3,838. As MLA he pressed for local development projects including a university, an engineering college, a zoo and biodiversity park, and drinking-water supply for a historically underdeveloped district. Zee News noted that his elevation to the cabinet ended a nearly two-decade gap for Giridih as a JMM ministerial seat.
His real power, colleagues said, was organisational. After Hemant Soren's Enforcement Directorate arrest in January 2024, Sonu helped keep the party machinery running. He floated and then drove the plan to field Kalpana Soren from the safe Gandey seat; he headed the JMM core campaign committee for that June 2024 bypoll, which she won. In the 2024 Assembly election he was widely called the JMM's Chanakya, credited with strategy that helped the INDIA-bloc alliance secure a second term. He later handled sensitive seat-sharing talks with the RJD ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.
On 5 December 2024 he joined the Hemant Soren cabinet. Portfolios reported across official and wire sources included Higher and Technical Education, Urban Development and Housing, Tourism, Art and Culture, and Sports and Youth Affairs. He became the government's public face during talks with students and job aspirants protesting alleged irregularities in JPSC and JSSC examinations, heading a ministerial panel for negotiations. Days before his death he led a Jharkhand delegation to Karnataka to study tourism and forest-tourism models and met Karnataka Tourism Minister K. J. George.
In the early hours of 6 September 2026, after complaining of chest pain and uneasiness at his Giridih residence, he was rushed to Mercy Hospital. Doctors there described ECG signs of a heart attack, unrecordable blood pressure, and unsuccessful CPR; he was declared dead around 4:00 a.m., aged 56. Wikipedia and officials put admission around 2:30 a.m. He was cremated the same day with full state honours at Harsinghraydeeh cremation ground in Giridih; his son Shreyash performed the last rites, and Hemant Soren helped shoulder the bier. The state declared two days of mourning on 6-7 September, with government offices closed on 7 September and the national flag at half-mast.
Condolences crossed party lines. Hemant Soren wrote that Sonu Bhaiya was like an elder brother whose departure left a void beyond words. Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar called the death an irreparable loss to the state. Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi, Finance Minister Radhakrishna Kishore, Union Minister Annapurna Devi, and many others paid tribute. The JMM called him a dedicated comrade whose loss was irreparable to party, government, and Jharkhand.
He is survived by his wife Shweta Sharma, two daughters, and a son. What remains of his public story is less a tale of inherited privilege than of stubborn loyalty: a contractor's son who never left the JMM, who lost twice before winning Giridih, and who died still carrying the portfolios and the trust of a chief minister who called him brother.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia Sudivya Kumar; ThePrint PTI 2026-09-06; Hindustan Times (Vishal Kant); Zee News; eNewsroom (Shahnawaz Akhtar); The Indian Tribal; Daily Pioneer PTI; MyNeta Jharkhand 2024 affidavit; TheSpeak.
In their own words
“Sonu Bhaiya was not just a senior colleague or political associate to me. He was like an elder brother - affectionate, guiding and steadfastly standing by my side in every difficult time.”
Hemant Soren on X, 2026-09-06
“The strong pillar of Jharkhandiyat - Sonu Bhaiya - will remain forever ageless and immortal. Humble tribute.”
Hemant Soren on X, 2026-09-06 (PTI / ThePrint)
“Sonu Bhaiya, your passing is a personal loss for me. Your absence will always be felt. I will carry your affection, your struggles, and your commitment to Jharkhand with me for life.”
Hemant Soren further tribute (ThePrint; New Indian Express)
“If educated people like you do not join the movement for a separate state, how will it grow?”
Sudivya Kumar recalling Shibu Soren's push into the Jharkhand movement (Speaking Jharkhand / KankeTalks)
“Do not do unto others what you do not like yourself.”
Sudivya Kumar on political style; said he kept the siren off before entering his constituency (KankeTalks)
“Heartfelt greetings and best wishes to everyone on the auspicious occasion of Shri Krishna Janmashtami... May the blessings of Lord Shri Krishna bring happiness, peace and prosperity into everyone's life.”
Last known X post, 2026-09-04 Janmashtami greeting (The Indian Tribal)
“Irreparable loss to the state.”
Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar on the death (PTI)
“A skilled public representative devoted to public service; an irreparable loss to state politics.”
Babulal Marandi, Leader of Opposition (PTI)
Photos
2Sudivya Kumar Sonu
by People Forever
Jharkhand Legislative Assembly
Cabinet portrait, Government of Jharkhand
by People Forever
Chief Minister's Office, Government of Jharkhand
From social media
7Posts by Sudivya, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.