Bhubaneswar: Dharmendra Pradhan is likely to be retained in Narendra Modi’s new team. Balasore MP Pratap Sarangi is likely to be inducted as Ministers in Narendra Modi’s Ministry.
Sources said both leaders have been summoned by party president Amit Shah to his residence in New Delhi ahead of the swearing-in.
While Pradhan is the outgoing Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister, Sarangi is a first time MP.
Pradhan, 49, represents Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha. He was in charge of the party affairs in Bihar.
Sarangi, 64, is an unlike politician. A bachelor, Sarangi stays in thatched house, rides a bicycle, leads very simple life. He defeated outgoing BJD MP and industrialist Rabindra Kumar Jena and Nabajyoti Patnaik of Congress, two of Odisha’s richest MP candidates fielded against him.
Modi will be sworn in this evening for a second straight term as Prime Minister after his BJP’s landslide victory in the national election.
Odisha had two Cabinet Ministers in the outgoing Narendra Modi Ministry, Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, though BJP had won only one Lok Sabha seat from the State in 2014 elections. However, the BJP has improved its Lok Sabha performance by winning eight seats out of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State.
Besides Sarangi, outgoing Union Minister Jual Oram, BJP national secretary Suresh Pujari, former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi, Basanta Panda, Suresh Pujari, Sangita Singh Deo, Nitish Gang Deb are the BJP winners.
