Dharmendra Pradhan

Dharmendra Pradhan, son of the former BJP MP Dr. Debendra Pradhan and Shrimati Basanta Manjari Pradhan, born on 26 June 1969 in Talcher district of Angul, Odisha. Before entering the political arena, he studied at Talcher College and then went on to complete his post graduation in Anthropology from Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. He married Mridula Pradhan on 12 September 1998 and is the father of two children namely Naimisha Pradhan and Nishant Pradhan.

He started his political journey by becoming a member of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthiya Parishad (ABVP), and he soon started gaining popularity. He was elected the President of Talcher College Students’ Union in 1985. He worked with diligence and sincerity and participated in students movement in Odisha.

He has also been elected as the National Secretary of ABVP and Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha in the year 1995 and 2004 respectively. He went a step ahead into national politics in the year 2004 when his father, who was an MP from Deogarh constituency, left his seat, making way for him.

Dharmendra Pradhan won the elections for Lok Sabha from Deogarh in 2004. Pradhan was elected as a member of 12th Assembly of Odisha from Pallalhara constituency in 2000. He held the position of National President of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha from 2004 to 2006. Then in 2007, he became the National Secretary of BhartiyaJanta Party and the party’s All India General Secretary in 2010.

Pradhan also looked after the matters related to the elections and has been the in-charge of the party in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Tripura, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand, and Odisha. He became the MP of Rajya Sabha for Bihar in 2012 and subsequently of Madhya Pradesh in 2018.

In 2014, Pradhan assumed office as the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas. He has also been a member of committees like Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Rural Development. Pradhan loves to read and travel whenever he gets a time out of his busy schedule.

He, apart from being a politician, is an active social worker who primarily focuses on the problems of the youth like unemployment or lack of education. Pradhan believes it to be essential that the youths of the country progress for the development of the nation.

Thus he has focused on providing skills to as many people as possible. As pointed out by him in an interview that the people of India have huge expectations from the government in power. Therefore he has consistently worked in the interest of poor, backward classes and farmers.