New Delhi: While the Bharatiya Janata Party’s historic third consecutive win in Haryana is widely hailed as a comeback helmed by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who fought the anti-incumbency wave and delivered, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is also being regarded as the taskmaster who worked behind the scenes to lift the party from crisis before the electoral battle.
Pradhan, who is now handling the education portfolio at the Centre, is among the closest of BJP’s “Chankaya” Amit Shah and a leader who quietly works for the party on the ground.
The Odisha leader has steadily become the BJP’s go-to strategist for challenging states and tough electoral contests. Before taking on Haryana, he was entrusted with overseeing elections in Uttarakhand in 2017 and Uttar Pradesh in 2022. His long-term focus was his home state, Odisha, where the BJP secured a victory this year.
He also played a key role in the 2021 West Bengal elections, where he was given a singular mission — to manage Nandigram, the seat where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faced a rare defeat, even as her party swept the state.
These abilities made him the obvious choice to handle Haryana, where the party faced significant challenges: anti-incumbency, disgruntled Jat and farmer communities, discontent among army aspirants over the Agniveer scheme, shaken party workers after Congress’s intense campaign, and internal rebels unhappy with ticket distribution, NDTV reported.
Dharmendra Pradhan’s strategy for Haryana
The battle plan began with a deep commitment on the ground. For over a month, he stayed in the state, setting up camps in Rohtak, Kurukshetra, and Panchkula. He kept his ear to the ground, engaging with party workers and leaders, and maintaining close communication with the central leadership. Pradhan motivated workers, dismantled the Congress narrative, and played a key role in selecting candidates.
On ground zero, Pradhan held small meetings, took real-time feedback from workers, and immediately addressed any shortcomings with the leadership. He also calmed dissenting voices, identified weak booths, and brought in strong workers from other parties, the report said.
As the Haryana assembly election results were announced, Pradhan called the BJP’s victory in the state “unprecedented and historic” and that the mandate proves the people of Haryana have rejected the casteism, regionalism, nepotism and negative politics of the Congress.
The BJP scored a historic hattrick in Haryana on Tuesday, winning 48 out of 90 assembly seats while the Congress that was predicted to score a majority in exit polls suffered a major setback with a win on just 37 seats.
