Dharmendra Pradhan: The minister brought down by a paper leakpublished at 11:38 BST
11:38 BST
Image source, Getty Images
Dharmendra Pradhan’s
political story comes with a striking irony: he launched his career protesting against a question paper leak, then resigned on Saturday as education minister decades
later over another.
Born into a political family
in the eastern state of Odisha, 57-year-old Pradhan emerged through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
(ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, the umbrella organisation of Hindu nationalist parties. He reportedly led
student protests and suffered injuries in a police baton charge during an anti-paper
leak demonstration in 1997.
Although he finished third in
the local university students’ union election, he rose steadily through the
BJP, serving as ABVP national general secretary, BJP youth chief and later as one
of the party’s key election strategists.
A close ally of PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister JP Nadda, he is widely credited with expanding the BJP’s
organisation in Odisha.
Appointed junior petroleum
minister when Modi came to power in 2014, Pradhan served in the upper house
from Bihar before returning to Odisha to win a lower house seat in 2024.