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Who is Dharmendra Pradhan? India's Education Minister who resigned, what led to his downfall
Pradhan, who has been politically involved since a very young age, has made a massive splash with the BJP
- PUBLISHED: Sat 25 Jul 2026, 6:38 PM
India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday, July 25, following weeks of student-led protests over alleged exam paper leaks and the handling of national testing bodies.
The moment carried a striking irony: nearly three decades earlier, as a student activist, Pradhan himself led a protest against the then Congress government over an alleged Class 12 board exam paper leak in Odisha.
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Pradhan, politically active from a young age, rose to become one of the BJP's most trusted operators, known for his organisational discipline and networking skills.
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Early life, political journey
He began his political journey through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a child. His father, Debendra Pradhan, a physician, also became active in politics through the RSS, rising to become a major BJP leader in Odisha and later a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
As a student at Talcher College in Odisha's Angul district, Pradhan joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS's student wing. He became president of the college's student union in 1985, then rose through ABVP's ranks — as Odisha state secretary in 1993, and national secretary by the mid-1990s. He studied for a postgraduate degree in anthropology at Utkal University in Bhubaneswar.
It was during this period, in 1997, that Pradhan — by then ABVP's national secretary — is reported to have led around 1,500 students in a protest outside the Odisha Secretariat in Bhubaneswar, demanding an inquiry into an alleged exam paper leak.
Rise in BJP ranks
Pradhan began his electoral career as a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2004. During this period, he was appointed president of the BJP's Odisha Youth Wing (BJYM) in 2001 and became the party's National Secretary in 2002.
In 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Deogarh, Odisha, and later that year was named National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He lost the 2009 Odisha assembly election from the Parlahara seat and, in 2012, entered the Rajya Sabha from Bihar, marking his emergence as a national BJP figure.
After Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, Pradhan was appointed Union Petroleum Minister, playing a central role in initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which expanded LPG access across the country. He also briefly held the additional charge of the Ministry of Steel from 2019 to 2021, and is the longest-serving Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.
BJP's key man in Odisha
Pradhan is known to have helped the Bhartiya Janata Party win over the state of Odisha, with his impeccable networking skills and grassroots network.
Pradhan is widely credited with building the BJP's organisational network in Odisha. At a time when the party had a limited presence in the state, he travelled extensively to strengthen its grassroots base and recruit local leaders.
His organisational strategy helped the BJP register a strong performance in the 2017 panchayat elections and win eight Lok Sabha seats from Odisha in 2019. In 2024, he played a pivotal role in the BJP's historic victory in the state, leading the party to form the government on its own for the first time by defeating the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
What led to his downfall as Education Minister
Despite rolling out reforms such as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and championing mother-tongue instruction in early schooling, repeated controversies over the conduct of competitive exams ultimately proved his undoing.
The immediate trigger for his resignation was a nationwide protest movement, led by the satirical 'Cockroach Janta Party' (CJP), that began in early June 2026 following anger over exam paper leaks, including in the Neet-UG entrance test, and the deaths of students who were told to retake exams.
Weeks of demonstrations, including a police crackdown that injured protesters, culminated in Pradhan submitting his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 25, 2026, in a letter in which he said he wanted to ensure students' futures did not "get entangled in legal complexities." CJP leaders said the government had accepted all their demands and called off the protests shortly after.
Pradhan also found himself at the centre of a prolonged dispute with the Tamil Nadu government over the NEP's three-language framework, with the state accusing the Centre of trying to impose Hindi — a charge the Union government has consistently denied, saying the policy promotes multilingualism.
Beyond policy disputes, the Education Ministry faced criticism from opposition leaders and student groups over allegations of growing ideological influence in educational institutions — allegations the Centre has also rejected.
