‘Want to Contest from Odisha’: Dharmendra Pradhan’s Wish Ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha Polls – News18

As both ruling and Opposition parties have set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday expressed a desire to contest the upcoming general elections from Odisha and requested the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to give him a chance.

In an interview with news agency PTI, Pradhan, who is a senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP, said the party’s agenda is to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets to serve the nation for a third term.

“I want to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. I have already informed the party about my wish and have requested it to give me a chance from Odisha. The BJP’s agenda is to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets to serve the nation for a third term,” he said.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Odisha’s Deogarh. He was also elected as the member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

‘INDIA Bloc A Real Challenge…’

Meanwhile, when Pradhan was asked about all the Opposition parties coming together to fight the BJP in 2024 general elections, he said the opposition INDIA bloc is a “real challenge”.

He told PTI that the saffron party’s agenda is to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets to serve the nation for a third term. “I consider it (INDIA bloc) as a real challenge because the BJP and the NDA do not take any election casually. From ground workers to top leaders, everybody takes each election very seriously and the prime minister leads us from the front,” he was quoted as saying.

On the women’s reservation bill, the BJP leader said, “The Congress let the women’s reservation bill lapse and did not show any dedication to it during its rule. Nobody had held their hands. They had the opportunity (to get the bill passed) but they did not do it.”