NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Dharmendra Pradhan‘s resignation Saturday marks an unusual stumble in a political career that appeared to be headed towards more important destinations.The architect of BJP’s maiden victory in Odisha and facilitator of a series of wins elsewhere was first catapulted into the limelight while leading an ABVP-backed agitation in 1996 against an alleged Class XII question paper leak in Od-isha, during which he was injured in a police lathicharge.Four years later, he won the Pallahara assembly seat on a BJP ticket. He became president of BJP’s youth wing, BJYM, in Odisha in 2001 and was elevated as party national secretary in 2002. In 2004, he was appointed BJYM national president.It was also the year he first entered Lok Sabha from Deogarh, when BJP and BJD were allies. Disappointment followed when he lost the assembly poll from Pallahara in 2009 after delimitation abolished the Deogarh LS seat and the alliance collapsed.
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Pradhan made a comeback when he was appointed co-in-charge of BJP’s campaign for 2010 Bihar assembly polls, which BJP swept along with JDU. His nomination to Rajya Sabha from Bihar was seen as a just reward. As election in-charge of Bihar for the 2014 LS polls, he was crucial to NDA’s sweep of 31 of its 40 LS seats.
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In 2014 he was inducted into Modi’s first cabinet as MoS with independent charge of the petroleum ministry, despite resistance. Three years later, he was cabinet minister.Amid the controversy over gas pricing, Pradhan launched a clean-up drive and put an end to the complete drip of corporate houses in the sector. His ministry’s Ujjwala scheme helped expand LPG access. His work helped him get the education portfolio in 2021.Pradhan’s background as a grassroots worker also made him a crucial player in political battles. In 2022, he was made the party’s election in-charge in UP, where BJP won 255 of 403 seats. In 2024, he successfully contested from Sambalpur. Though he retained the education ministry in Modi’s third term, the reward was seen as less than what he deserved, considering he was the architect of BJP’s organisational base in Odisha – a state where the party swept to office for the first time.But things have been challenging for him since then, with paper leaks in 2024 and 2026, as well as the botched-up OMR rollout by CBSE.In between, he delivered a success in Haryana in 2024, and Bihar, where he was BJP’s election in-charge in 2025.
