Dharmendra Pradhan to become longest serving oil minister

NEW DELHI: Ujjwala-man Dharmendra Pradhan is set to become India's longest serving oil minister as he set out for a second stint, during which his priorities he said will be to raise domestic oil and gas production, expedite creation of national gas grid and create common market-friendly infrastructure.
Pradhan is the only oil minister after Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's Ram Naik to have completed full five-year term. But unlike Naik, he has been reassigned the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, which he had made a common household name through the free LPG cooking gas connection scheme Ujjwala in the first stint.
Late Murli Deora too had a five-year stint - from January 2006 to January 2011, as the oil minister but it was split over two governments, both led by the UPA.