New Education Minister Could Be Named As Early As Today Or Tomorrow: Sources

The government is likely to appoint a new Union education minister tonight or tomorrow morning, following the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan amid protests led by the satirical political group, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

A senior Union minister could be given additional charge of the Ministry of Education for a temporary period, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. However, no frontrunner has emerged yet, they said.

The formal appointment order is expected to come from the President's office.

Pradhan, 57, resigned earlier today as protests in Delhi's Jantar Mantar over exam paper leaks entered the 35th day.

"For over four decades, I have dedicated myself to the cause of students, teachers, and educational reform. I have always believed that a robust, inclusive, and visionary education system forms the cornerstone of a strong nation," he said in his resignation letter.

He said he decided to step down in order to prevent anti-national forces from exploiting the situation in Jantar Mantar.

Hours after his resignation, the CJP's spokespersons Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in a joint press conference with Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh announced they had ended the protest "in good faith" after the Centre assured to meet their demands.

Pradhan's resignation was the main demand of the group created by Abhijeet Dipke, a Boston University graduate who recently returned to India to lead the protest over paper leaks.

The protest at Jantar Mantar began on June 6 and gained wider attention after Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk joined with an indefinite hunger strike on June 28, which ended on Thursday night after 26 days.

Pradhan is the second Union minister to resign since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power in the centre in 2014. The first was MJ Akbar, who stepped down as minister of state for external affairs in 2018 after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him during the #MeToo movement.

Pradhan, the son of former Union minister Debendra Pradhan, started as an activist of the RSS' student wing ABVP in 1983. The BJP has often tasked the former Union education minister as election in-charge of some states.