By D N Singh
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has remained as the engine of Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha seems suddenly reclining in the front row of the party hierarchy.
Several eyebrows were raised the other day when Pradhan was conspicuous by his absence from the nomination of Draupadi Murmu for the presidential elections, in Delhi.
It is for the first time that a woman from Odisha and who represents the tribal community, is vying for the country’s top most constitutional post. Which has created a special euphoria among the Odias and specially among the community that Murmu belongs to.
That day, according to sources in Delhi, Pradhan was inside the Lok Sabha yet, for reasons not known, did not attend the gathering which had its significnce in itself by the presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda.
Dharmendra Pradhan who otherwise had been known as BJP’s mascot in Odisha, his absence from the event is bound to raise some heckles in the cadre.
Had the candidate been from some other state, one can assume Pradhan’s absence as a casual lapse but, Murmu being from Odisha and a woman who represents the tribal, was something that puzzles many political observers.
Was he not invited or he opted out, are few questions those cannot be lost to conjectures alone.
Pradhan who has been a successful leader to steer the BJP in Odisha out of the gloom of a tail-piece in the state politics and made it number one opposition in the state, why did he choose to abstain from such an importat occasion is a poser.
He has been a successful leader as election-in-charge in a few states and the recent being in Uttar Pradesh, it is hard to believe that Pradhan is being marginalised in the top heirarchy of the BJP.
The recent loss in the Brajarajnagar bi-election by the BJP may not suffice to be a reason behind Pradhan taking the back seat.
