Bigger role for Dharmendra Pradhan in high-stake UP assembly poll battle

BHUBANESWAR: His critics had interpreted it as a demotion for Dharmendra Pradhan when he was shifted from petroleum and steel to education and skill development in the Union cabinet reshuffle in July. However, he has once again proved to be Narendra Modi-Amit Shah’s trusted lieutenant with the BJP making him the prabhari (in-charge) of high-stake UP assembly poll.
As the Yogi Adityanath government seeks to return to power in the poll due early next year, Pradhan has his task cut as overall poll in-charge. If the BJP does well in in UP, India’s most populous state, which influences country’s poll and politics, the Odisha leader’s stature as its poll manager would enhance further. Shah was in-charge of 2014 LS and 2017 assembly poll in the politically crucial state.
The state BJP leaders here feel Pradhan has won the trust of the leadership by his sheer performance over the years. “He is a high performer which he has proved time and again completing the tasks given to him by the party and the government with an excellent outcome. I am sure, as prabhari he would contribute a lot to party’s return to power in UP,” said BJP Odisha unit president Samir Mohanty.
BJP insiders said party’s current general secretary (organization) in UP, Sunil Bansal, and Dharmendra Pradhan worked together in ABVP during their early political careers and the two enjoy an excellent rapport. Both enjoy tremendous confidence of PM Modi and Shah.
Though UP will be his biggest such assignment, Pradhan has earned the expertise and experience playing similar roles in many other states earlier. He has worked as prabharis of Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Bihar and has overseen assembly election for the saffron party in Uttarakhand. He was proactively involved in party’s recent West Bengal assembly elections apart from playing lead role in BJP making strong inroads in Odisha in the last Lok Sabha election.
Most recently, the saffron party leadership had deputed Pradhan to Karnataka to oversee smooth transition of baton from then chief minister BS Yediyurappa to Basavaraj Bommai.
Currently, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, after completing another stint in the upper house from Bihar, Pradhan was earlier elected to Lok Sabha (2004) and Vidhan Sabha (2000) from Odisha once each.
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