Dharmendra Pradhan
Resigned as Union Education Minister on July 25 after a 36-day NEET-leak sit-in at Jantar Mantar; framed his exit as protecting students from "anti-national forces," returned to Parliament calling himself "a street fighter," and now faces an Odisha BJP rift over his standing.
Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister on July 25, 2026, closing a 36-day student sit-in at Jantar Mantar that had made his position untenable. He framed his exit as serving "the interest of students" and preventing "anti-national forces" from exploiting the unrest, saying he had taken responsibility for the NEET paper leak from day one. President Murmu accepted the resignation the same day. The broader NEET-UG and UGC-NET paper-leak crisis that drove the protests had run roughly seven weeks, and his departure was the lever that ended the CJP-led agitation after the government agreed to withdraw FIRs and compensate families of deceased students.
The crisis peaked on June 25, when Pradhan branded Jantar Mantar protesters "the B-team of terrorists" on NDTV, calling them "those rejected in democracy" who "came back in another disguise." Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge demanded his immediate resignation and apology; CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke rejected the label. Sustained opposition pressure followed through July, with Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal calling his exit non-negotiable and Rahul Gandhi's "Chhatron Ki Goonj" campaign keeping Pradhan on the defensive. By July 20, Pradhan had shifted tone: "We owe our students more than outrage. We owe them answers, reforms and accountability." The conciliation came too late to shift momentum.
Since stepping down, Pradhan returned to Parliament on July 27 to a celebratory BJP-NDA welcome and dismissed sympathy from Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, calling himself "a street fighter, not an AC-room activist." His office tried and failed to suppress an Instagram post by Archita Rahar, daughter of BJP Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, that celebrated his resignation; Rahar defied his personal assistant with "Don't bother. I won't delete," exposing an Odisha BJP rift. He now sits as a portfolio-less BJP MP from Odisha with his next move undefined.
On their plate
Pradhan resigned on July 25, with President Murmu accepting the same day, ending a 36-day CJP-led sit-in at Jantar Mantar over NEET-UG and UGC-NET paper leaks. His resignation letter said he stepped down "in the interest of students" to prevent "anti-national forces" from exploiting the situation and keep students' futures from being "entangled in legal complexities," claiming he took responsibility for the NEET leak from day one. The broader exam-leak crisis had run roughly seven weeks; his exit was the lever that closed the 36-day agitation after the government agreed to withdraw FIRs and compensate families of deceased students.
Pradhan's office tried and failed to suppress an Instagram post by Archita Rahar, daughter of BJP Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, that celebrated his resignation. Rahar defied both Pradhan's personal assistant and her mother with "Don't bother. I won't delete," exposing an intra-BJP fault line in Odisha over his standing. Sarangi publicly praised Pradhan's "courage" while party colleagues demanded she apologize.
Pradhan's June 25 NDTV interview calling Jantar Mantar protesters "the B-team of terrorists" and "those rejected in democracy" who "came back in another disguise" became the defining wound of his tenure. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge demanded his immediate resignation and apology; CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke rejected the label. Pressure sustained through July, with Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal calling his exit non-negotiable and Gandhi's "Chhatron Ki Goonj" campaign keeping him on the defensive. By July 20, Pradhan shifted tone: "We owe our students more than outrage. We owe them answers, reforms and accountability." The conciliation was too late to reverse momentum.
Key relationships
Gandhi demanded Pradhan's immediate resignation and apology after the "B-team of terrorists" remark and sustained pressure through the "Chhatron Ki Goonj" campaign.
Ramesh offered public sympathy after Pradhan's resignation; Pradhan dismissed it, calling himself "a street fighter, not an AC-room activist."
Sarangi, BJP MP from Bhubaneswar, publicly praised Pradhan's "courage" after his resignation, even as party colleagues demanded she apologize for her daughter's post.
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