Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Wins From Sambalpur Lok Sabha Constituency (image:facebook.com/DharmendraPradhanOdisha)

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hits a massive win from Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency.  BJP leader contested against Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das. In the polls, Pradhan garnered 5,92,162 seats and defeated Das by a margin of 1,19,836 votes.

As Das polled 4,72,326 votes,  Congress candidate Nagendra Kumar Pradhan came third and received 89,113 votes.

Pradhan was called as “Ujjwala Man” after helming with the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which aimed at providing over 8 million LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

Dharmendra Pradhan is a prominent Indian politician and one of the key ministers in the BJP government. He handled the portfolios, Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. He, previously, represented Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament. He hails from a political family. Dharmendra Pradhan’s father, Debendra Pradhan, served as a Minister of State during the Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2004.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Nitesh Ganga Deb emerged as winner in the Sambalpur constituency with 47,3,770 votes, securing a vote share of 42.00%. He won the constituency by a margin of 9,162 votes, defeating his closest rival, Nalini Kanta Pradhan of the BJD, who received 464,608 votes, representing a 41.24% share of the total votes.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Nagendra Kumar Pradhan of the BJD had won the seat with 3,58,618 votes, accounting for a 36.42% vote share. The BJP’s candidate, Suresh Pujari, was the runner-up in that election, having secured 3,28,042 votes, equivalent to 33.31% of the vote share. Nagendra Kumar Pradhan’s victory over Suresh Pujari was by a margin of 30,576 votes.

(This story is part of a Timeline. internship project.)