LS polls: BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan files nomination from Sambalpur

Sambalpur: Senior BJP leader and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday filed his nomination for Lok Sabha polls from Sambalpur in Odisha.

In the morning, Pradhan visited Samaleswari Temple to seek blessings, before participating in a two-hour-long roadshow from the temple to the DC office where he filed the nomination.

“There is a demand for change in Odisha and the BJP is determined to win not only the Lok Sabha polls but also the upcoming assembly elections in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call of ‘400 paar’ and I am confident that all 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha will be won by the BJP,” he told PTI.

Pradhan, who is a cabinet minister in the Modi government, is contesting elections after a gap of 15 years, after the BJP picked him as its candidate for Sambalpur, which is the epicentre of western Odisha.

He had last contested elections in 2009 after the BJP-BJD alliance had ended. He lost the assembly poll that year.

Pradhan was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and to the Lok Sabha from Deogarh seat in 2004.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar in 2012 and again in 2018 from Madhya Pradesh.