Almost two decades back when he was a little-known figure and was contesting his maiden MLA election, his party’s poll ally and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik saw in him a potential threat. A threat that did come true when Dharmendra Pradhan helped build a groundswell for BJP that broke into Patnaik’s citadel in 2019.
Son of former union minister of state for surface transport, Debendra Pradhan, Dharmendra steered Modi government’s biggest social initiative of providing free cooking gas (LPG) connection to poor women that helped build a base for the party in the rural hinterland.
While he micromanaged implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawla Yojana to see LPG customer base more than double to 26 crore in just five years, he kept Odisha central to his political priorities and virtually drove many a project in the oil ministry he headed to the state.
