NEW DELHI: CJP president Abhijeet Dipke on Saturday urged his supporters not to celebrate Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan‘s resignation as a personal victory for him, saying the movement was bigger than any one individual.Addressing supporters, Dipke said, “I want to say something very important. Don’t make me a hero because Dharmendra Pradhan resigned today. Don’t make this mistake. Don’t make me a hero because of Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. The country has been ruined because of making one person a hero.”Pradhan resigned from the Union Cabinet earlier on Saturday amid the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) ongoing agitation over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations and demands for education reforms.
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The CJP has been protesting since June 20, calling for accountability over the alleged exam irregularities and pressing for wider changes to the education system. Dipke said the campaign was driven by collective public participation and should not be reduced to the achievement of a single leader.Who is Dharmendra PradhanDharmendra Pradhan, 57, represents Odisha’s Sambalpur constituency in the Lok Sabha and holds a postgraduate degree in Anthropology from Utkal University.Considered part of the inner circle around Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Pradhan won the Sambalpur seat in the 2024 general election, defeating BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das in what was one of the state’s most keenly fought contests.One of the BJP’s most recognisable leaders in Odisha, Pradhan sat out both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly polls, but was nonetheless instrumental in growing the party’s presence in the state. After the BJP secured its first-ever solo majority in Odisha in 2024, speculation swirled around whether he might be named chief minister.His parliamentary journey has taken several turns: he sat in the Rajya Sabha representing Madhya Pradesh from 2018 to 2024, having earlier represented Bihar in the Upper House from 2012 to 2018. Before that, he won an assembly seat from Pallahara in Odisha in 2000 and entered the Lok Sabha from Deogarh in 2004, at a time when the BJP and BJD were still allies. Once Deogarh ceased to exist as a constituency after delimitation and the BJP-BJD partnership broke down, he returned to contest Pallahara in 2009 but was defeated by the BJD’s Rabi Narayan Pani.Pradhan’s ministerial career began when he was made minister of state with independent charge for petroleum and natural gas during Modi’s first term. He was upgraded to full Cabinet rank in 2017 and simultaneously given charge of skill development. He held the petroleum portfolio through Modi’s second term before moving to the education ministry in July 2021, a role he has retained into Modi’s third term.During his tenure at the petroleum ministry, he was linked to a number of major reforms and welfare programmes, among them the PAHAL direct benefit transfer scheme and the “Give It Up” initiative, which asked well-off households to voluntarily give up their LPG subsidies. He is also credited with the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), which brought in a uniform licensing system, an open acreage policy, and greater freedom around pricing to encourage domestic oil and gas output.At the education ministry, his tenure has been marked by the rollout of the National Education Policy (NEP), even as repeated exam-related controversies and question paper leaks have drawn criticism toward the ministry.Pradhan’s political roots trace back to his student years — he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1983 and went on to serve as its secretary. Within the BJP organisation, he has held several important charges, including election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and party in-charge for Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.He was born into a political household in the coal belt of Talcher, in Odisha’s Angul district, and is the younger son of the late Debendra Pradhan, who served as a Union minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He belongs to the OBC Chasa community and is married to Mridula Pradhan, who hails from Himachal Pradesh; the couple have two children, Nishant and Namaisha.The BJP leadership has repeatedly handed Pradhan politically delicate assignments. In 2021, he was named an observer for Karnataka following B.S. Yediyurappa’s resignation, and also served as the party’s election in-charge in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP went on to retain power. He also headed the party’s campaign in Nandigram, West Bengal, where Suvendu Adhikari defeated then chief minister Mamata Banerjee.In October 2024, he was placed in charge of the BJP’s campaign for the Haryana assembly elections, which ended in the party winning a third straight term in the state. He has, over the years, also handled election responsibilities in Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.Within the party, Pradhan is seen as a meticulous organiser and one of the BJP’s key strategists, known for his work on constituency-level reviews, outreach efforts, and tracking the implementation of central welfare schemes. He is also believed to have played a significant behind-the-scenes role in facilitating Nitish Kumar’s return to the NDA fold in 2022.
