Once fought a movement against paper leaks, was lathicharged, now Dharmendra Pradhan lost his chair in the same dispute.

New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has resigned from his post amidst the student agitation that lasted for 50 consecutive days and the NEET paper leak controversy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted his resignation. Announcing his resignation, Pradhan said on social media platform

Assigned the responsibility of Education Minister twice

Dharmendra Pradhan has been counted among the prominent faces of BJP for the last several years. On the basis of his organizational skills and administrative experience, he took charge of important ministries like Petroleum, Skill Development and Education in the Central Government. In the year 2021, he was made the Union Education Minister for the first time and after winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, he was again given the responsibility of this post.

How has your political journey been so far?

Interestingly, due to the paper leak controversy which forced him to resign today, a similar anti-exam question paper leak movement had decided the direction of his political career about 28 years ago. Let us tell you, in the year 1997, Dharmendra Pradhan was the national secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the student movement against the examination paper leak in Odisha.

Under his leadership, students surrounded the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar, where he was seriously injured in police lathi charge. After that movement, he formally joined BJP and gradually joined the prominent leaders of the party.

Worked to improve the education system for four decades

In his message after his resignation, Pradhan said that he has worked for the improvement of students, teachers and the education system for more than four decades. Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that it was an honor for him to serve as Education Minister. Accepting responsibility for the irregularities in the NEET-UG examination, he said that it was always his endeavor that injustice should not be done to any eligible student and the examination mafia should not affect the future of the students.

Not only this, Dharmendra Pradhan also said that in recent times, some people tried to make the situation more complicated by misleading the students, which hurt him personally. He said that for him the future of the youth of the country is more important than the position and the youth power of India is the biggest strength of the country.