Dharmendra Pradhan, one of the most trusted faces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, has resigned from the post of Union Education Minister. The leader whose identity was made in student politics almost three decades ago by taking to the streets, facing lathicharge and fighting against a big ‘paper leak’ scam. Today, the controversies of paper leak and rigging in the country’s biggest examinations have brought him to the most difficult phase of his career. Pradhan was once known as the ‘Ujjwala Man’ of the country and was also the Petroleum Minister of India for the longest period. Let us know the story of his political life and then the story of getting surrounded in the whirlpool of challenges.
Father was a minister in Atal government
Born on 26 June 1969 in Talcher, Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan inherited politics. His father Dr. Debendra Pradhan was a senior BJP leader and served as Union Minister of State in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (1999-2004). Dharmendra did his graduation (BA) in Political Science from Talcher Autonomous College and Utkal University and then obtained his master’s (MA) degree in Political Science from Sambalpur University. At the age of just 18, around 1983, he joined the RSS’s student organization, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
His old associates say that Dharmendra was fond of deep study of documents and policies from the beginning. During his days in student politics, he always kept pens of three different colors (red, blue and black) with him so that he could underline the main points while reviewing any important document. His supporters in Odisha still fondly call him ‘Muku Bhai’.
Dharmendra shines due to 1997 paper leak movement
The biggest turning point in Dharmendra Pradhan’s political life came in the year 1997. At that time, there was a Congress government in Odisha led by Janaki Vallabh Patnaik. There was huge anger among the students after the question paper of a major examination was leaked in the state. At that time Dharmendra Pradhan was the national secretary of ABVP. He was on it twice between 1994 and 1997. Dharmendra led a massive and furious demonstration of about 1,500 students outside the state secretariat in Bhubaneswar.
The police lathicharged the protesters, in which Dharmendra Pradhan suffered serious injuries and suffered multiple fractures in his body. But this increased Dharmendra’s stature further. He became a firebrand leader of students and youth in Odisha.
To prevail in electoral politics and organization
After student politics, Pradhan entered electoral politics. In the year 2000, he was elected Member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Pallahara seat. In the year 2004, when his father left the Devgarh Lok Sabha seat, Dharmendra contested from there under the BJP-BJD alliance and became a Lok Sabha MP (MP) for the first time. However, the 2009 general elections proved to be a major setback for him, when he lost the assembly elections from Pallahara seat. After this, he stayed away from direct election contests for some time, but his stature in the organization continued to grow.
The central leadership of BJP recognized his ground hold and strategic understanding. He was sent to Rajya Sabha twice from Hindi speaking states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. At the organizational level, he worked as the election in-charge of the party in states like Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Bihar. A major credit goes to the hard work of Dharmendra Pradhan for taking the BJP from zero to the top in Odisha and creating the background for forming a BJP government with full majority there for the first time in 2024.
Record made in Petroleum Ministry
In 2014, when the government was formed at the Center under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Dharmendra Pradhan was appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. In view of his excellent work, he was promoted as cabinet minister in 2017. This important responsibility remained with him even during the second term of Modi government in 2019.
Dharmendra Pradhan holds the record of being the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the longest period in the history of India. There were two biggest game-changing decisions of his tenure.
- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: This scheme of providing free LPG connections to rural and poor women to free them from smoke was brought to the ground. After this he came to be called ‘Ujjwala Man’. This scheme created a big women vote bank for BJP.
- HELP Policy (Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy): Pradhan implemented a revolutionary policy in the hydrocarbon sector, under which companies got uniform licensing, open acreage policy, marketing and pricing freedom. This opened the way for large foreign investments in the country’s energy sector.
Apart from this, he also took charge of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and worked towards skilling the youth of the country.
Great comeback of 2024
In the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, Dharmendra Pradhan decided to directly contest the elections after almost a decade. He defeated veteran Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das in a tough contest from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat of Odisha. This was his historic election comeback. He became the only cabinet minister from Odisha to take oath in the Modi 3.0 cabinet.
He was made the education minister of the country. But he was entrusted with the responsibility of improving the education and examination system, but in the country’s most prestigious medical entrance examination (NEET-UG) and other examinations, such a storm of allegations of alleged paper leak, rigging and corruption arose that his chair was in danger. Demands for Pradhan’s resignation started being raised in Jantar Mantar and the country’s Parliament. Pradhan had to resign from the post of minister on the 36th day of protests at Jantar Mantar.
Also read: Stubborn attitude, could not control the damage…why did Pradhan resign?
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