Jharkhand minister Sudivya Kumar dies of cardiac arrest in Giridih at 56

Sudivya Kumar, cabinet minister in the Hemant Soren government and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha legislator from Giridih, died of cardiac arrest in the early hours of 6 September. A party official said he reached a private hospital in Giridih around 2:30 a.m. and was declared dead around 4:00 a.m. He was 56.

Accounts of the last hours differ on one point. The Indian Express, citing sources, said he felt discomfort while sleeping at his Giridih house and died on the way to hospital. PTI and The Tribune placed the death at the hospital after admission late on Saturday night. Wikipedia's page, updated the same morning, lists the dates as 26 July 1970 to 6 September 2026 and the place of death as Giridih.

Kumar held Higher and Technical Education and Urban Development. He also had Tourism, Arts and Culture, and Sports and Youth Affairs. He first won Giridih in 2019, beating the sitting contest from that seat, and held it again in 2024 before joining Soren's cabinet on 5 December 2024. He is survived by two daughters and a son.

Soren issued a note that named him as an elder brother. "Late at night, I received the heartbreaking news of the passing of my elder brother, our beloved Sudivya Kumar Ji. Accepting this news is extremely difficult for me. Sonu Bhaiya's departure has left a void in my life that cannot be expressed in words," the chief minister wrote. He added that Kumar had stood with JMM founder Shibu Soren from the years of the Jharkhand statehood movement.

The party account on X called the death an irreparable loss for the organisation, the government and the state. Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato and leaders from other parties sent condolences. The cabinet now has an open set of portfolios that touch colleges, cities, tourism circuits and sports grounds. Those files will sit with the chief minister until a successor is sworn in.

Kumar's value inside JMM was organisational as much as ministerial. Tribune and India Today both recorded that he helped hold the party during Soren's 2024 arrest in a land and money-laundering case. That period left the government dependent on a small group of trusted MLAs from the Santhal and coal-belt seats. Giridih is one of those seats. It sits on the coal and mica belt of north Jharkhand and has long been a JMM-BJP contest.

A by-election will follow once the Election Commission notifies the vacancy. Until then the district administration and the party district unit will handle the funeral and the condolence meetings. No official programme for the last rites had been posted by mid-morning Sunday.

The age printed in first reports swung between 54 and 56. Indian Express used 54 in its headline. Tribune, India Today and the Wikipedia entry used 56. The birth date now on the public page, 26 July 1970, matches 56. That is the figure this desk is using until the family issues a formal notice.

For the Soren government the practical loss is a minister who could be sent to a college strike or a tourism file without a long briefing. Higher education in Jharkhand still runs with a large share of vacant teaching posts. Urban local bodies in the coal towns have unpaid contractor bills. Those files do not pause for a funeral, but they will wait a few days while the party decides who inherits Giridih and who inherits the departments.

Statehood-era JMM hands are fewer than they were. Kumar belonged to that thinner group. The next test for the party is whether the Giridih organisation can hold a by-election without him on the ground.