'Ujjwala man' Dharmendra Pradhan takes oath as Cabinet Minister for third time

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan, who was the education and skill development minister in the last Modi government, was inducted in the Union cabinet for the third time on Sunday.

Pradhan, who returns to the Lok Sabha after 15 years, won from Sambpalpur in Odisha, defeating the Biju Janata Dal's Pranab Prakash Das by a substantial margin of over 1.19 lakh votes.

It is not known yet if he would be retaining his portfolio as the education minister in which he was tasked with the implementation of the ambitious new National Education Policy (NEP).

Pradhan, a prominent face of the BJP in Odisha, was also being seen as a probable choice for the state's first BJP chief minister after the party secured 78 seats in the assembly polls, defeating the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD.

Popularly known as the "Ujjwala" man, Pradhan is credited with being the longest serving Union minister for petroleum and natural gas.

Pradhan made his Lok Sabha debut in 2004 from Deogarh in Odisha. While he lost the 2009 assembly elections, he went on to become the BJP national secretary and then its general secretary.

In 2012, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. And when Narendra Modi swept to power in the 2014 general election, Pradhan was made the Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas with independent charge.

In a cabinet reshuffle in 2017, he was elevated to the cabinet rank for the same ministry, with an additional charge of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. He again was made a cabinet minister in the second Modi government.

In 2021, Pradhan was made the Union minister for education and skill development and entrepreneurship.

Pradhan, who hails from Talcher, was born on June 26, 1969 in Odisha. He is the son of Debendra Pradhan, who was a minister of state in the Vajpayee government between 1999 and 2004.

Dharmendra Pradhan began his political career in 1983 as an ABVP activist and was elected as its secretary. He also worked as an election in-charge in Bihar and as the in-charge of party affairs in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Odisha and Jharkhand.

He studied at the Talcher Autonomous College and Utkal University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in political science from the Sambalpur University.