The Bharatiya Janata Party has won a spectacular victory in Odisha. After this, they are now preparing to stake claim to form the government. In the recently concluded assembly elections, the BJP has won by giving a shock to the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Now the discussion has started on who will be the next Chief Minister of Odisha. According to many analysts, the name of Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP MP since 2004 and currently the Education Minister and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet since 2021, is in the news.
Dharmendra Pradhan is leading in this race
Dharmendra Pradhan was born on 26 June 1969 in Talcher, Odisha. He has a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from Sambalpur University. He began his political career in 1997 when he was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly and served as a minister in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government from 1997 to 2000.
In 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Puri constituency on a BJP ticket. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Pradhan has held several ministerial positions in the BJP government. He was Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, he was made the Minister of Steel. In 2021, he was made the Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Why is Pradhan an important contender?
Like in 2019, this time too he played a key role in handling the BJP’s election strategy. Pradhan’s important tasks include preparing the manifesto as well as overseeing day-to-day work before the elections. Pradhan was a strong and constant critic of the Naveen Patnaik-led government. He is known as a strong supporter of Odia identity. Pradhan, who is one of the prominent faces of the BJP in Odisha, is highly likely to become the Chief Minister.
Along with the Lok Sabha elections, assembly elections were also held in Odisha. In the assembly elections, BJP got 78 seats, BJD got 51 seats, Congress got 14 seats and others got 4 seats.
