Amid ‘suspense’ over his whereabouts and intense political drama, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday reached his official residence in Ranchi and chaired a meeting of his alliance MLAs even as a slugfest broke out between his party JMM and the BJP over the action by the ED, which is set to question him on Wednesday in a money-laundering case.

A day after an ED team visited the JMM executive president’s Delhi home with the intent to question him and agency officials claimed that he was “untraceable”, sources close to Soren said that the 48-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader came by road from Delhi, undertaking a more than 1,250 km journey.

“I reside in your hearts,” he told reporters in Ranchi after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary. He was replying to a query regarding his absence.

“We all are committed to following the footsteps and ideologies of the Father of the Nation. We are proud that such people were born among us and guided us,” he added.

According to sources, Soren held the meeting of alliance legislators at the CM House to discuss the present political situation in the state. In photographs and videos shared by Soren’s office on X, MLAs and ministers were seen greeting the chief minister before taking part in the meeting.