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Pradeep Bhandari Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

April 8, 20240

 

Pradeep Bhandari is an Indian journalist, author, psephologist and the news director of the ‘India News’ channel of ITV Network. He is the founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of JanKiBaat, a digital media platform on public issues.

Wiki/Biography

Pradeep Bhandari was born on Sunday, 30 June 1985 (age 38 years; as of 2023) in Indore, India. His zodiac sign is Cancer. He did his schooling at Cambridge International, Indore. In 2012, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka. He also studied Economics Reasoning and Public Policy at The Takshashila Institution. He has done certification in story writing from Aaina Manipal, Centrestage, Bangalore, and FTI Indore. In 2015, Pradeep Bhandari realised the power of social media when he saw a debate on TV and wanted to add some of his viewpoints to it following which he posted a video on his Facebook page. He then made it a weekly thing to talk about various ongoing issues and realised that a lot of people wanted to contribute their thoughts to it, which ultimately led him to make a career in journalism.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Pradeep Bhandari belongs to a Hindu family.

Parents & Siblings

Pradeep Bhandari’s father, Dilip Bhandari, is a retired police officer. His mother, Rajni Bhandari, is a healthcare worker at an NGO, ‘Thalassemia and Child Welfare Group,’ in Indore.

He has two sisters, Shubhra Bhandari, and Shilpa Bhandari.

Wife & Children

Pradeep Bhandari got married to Sagarika Mitra on 26 June 2021. She is a broadcast journalist and the Content Head at Jan Ki Baat.

Religion

Pradeep Bhandari practices Hinduism.

Career

Initial jobs and activism

Pradeep Bhandari initially ventured into the corporate sector as a digital design intern at Texas Instruments Company in 2012. After completing his internship, he worked at ST-Ericsson company as a design engineer for a period of nine months. He simultaneously started his own company called ‘Orange Revolution’ in Bengaluru, which worked with the district administration and various stakeholders in Bangalore to enhance women’s security. In 2013, he worked as the Youth Wing Coordinator with Thalassemia And Child Welfare Group, an NGO founded by his mother. In 2014, he taught at the Pink Flower Public School, Indore, for seven months after the Prime Minister’s appeal to all the educated youth to devote one hour a week to teaching the kids at a local community school.

Journalism

In 2016, Bhandari launched a platform called ‘Jan Ki Baat.’ This platform was initially run by volunteers on the ground level, who’d post live videos, audio, photos, and texts to discuss local, national, and social issues on social media through their mobile phones. Jan Ki Baat conducts live debates on their social media channels once a week, where panel members read out comments, take questions from the audience, and discuss various issues. Bhandari in an interview said,

The millennial generation wants to understand, contribute, express and debate something that is not possible on a unidirectional medium like the TV”

Jan Ki Baat’s focus slowly shifted towards predicting elections through opinion and exit polls. Pradeep Bhandari has predicted over 36 Indian elections and is one of the most well-known faces among psephologists in India. He later started working as the consulting editor at Republic Media Network and hosted a popular show, “Lalkaar,” on Republic TV.

Pradeep Bhandari on the show ‘Lalkaar’

In February 2021, he resigned from Republic TV. In August 2022, he joined ‘India News,’ a Hindi news channel under the ITV Network as the news director. On 19 July 2021, India News launched a new prime-time show called “Janta Ka Mukadama” with its host as Pradeep Bhandari.

Pradeep Bhandari on the show ‘Janta Ka Mukadama’

Author

In 2019, Pradeep Bhandari wrote a book titled “Modi Mandate 2019: Dispatches from Ground Zero,” published by Rupa Publications. It is a widely read book which is based on extensive groundwork done by him in more than 400 Lok Sabha constituencies. It includes conversations that he had with regular Indian voters from different Lok Sabha constituencies.

Pradeep Bhandari’s debut book

Controversies

Civil suit over irresponsible reporting

In October 2020, Pradeep Bhandari was involved in a lawsuit filed against journalists from Republic TV and Times Now over irresponsible reporting by certain media houses in the context of a drug case that emerged from the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. This lawsuit was filed in the Delhi High Court by 34 Bollywood producers and four film industry associations. According to the lawsuit, the news channels were disobeying the Programme Code framed under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, contained in Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994.

Complaint by Mumbai Police

In October 2020, a case was filed against Pradeep Bhandari by the cops for allegedly ‘obstructing public servants’ during the demolition of actress Kangana Ranaut‘s bungalow in September 2020. The complaint was registered under Articles 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of IPC and 37(1), 135 of the Bombay Police Act. Pradeep Bhandari claimed that he was illegally being detained by the Mumbai Police. The Mumbai police filed a petition to cancel Bhandari’s anticipatory bail, but it was rejected by the court in March, and the police was asked to close its probe and submit its report.

Tripura unit of the Congress party filed a complaint against Pradeep Bhandari

On 14 February 2023, Congress leaders Dr Ajoy Kumar and Gaurav Gogoi alleged Bhandari of violating the Model Code of Conduct during state elections. On 10 February, Tripura’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao, issued a few directives regarding opinion and exit polls. According to these directives, no opinion and exit polls were to be released from Feb 14 to Feb 27. However, the Jan Ki Baat opinion survey was released on 13 February 2023.

Awards

  • In February 2012, he won the Global Diplomacy Award for representing Iran in a discussion about ‘geopolitical problems in the Middle East.’
  • In October 2014, he was given the Young Leader Award by My Parliament, an organisation that organised the first youth parliament in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
  • Pradeep Bhandari received the “Sanskritik Yodha Puraskaar 2023” from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan.

    Pradeep Bhandari receiving the Sanskritik Yodha Puraskaar

Facts/Trivia

  • Pradeep Bhandari regularly exercises and does weightlifting to maintain his physique, and he often shares his workout regime on Instagram.
  • On 24 September 2020, many journalists were assembled outside the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office to report on the drug case involved in Sushant Singh Rajput‘s death case. A feud broke out between journalists from Republic TV, NDTV and ABP news channels, which led to one of the journalists slapping Pradeep Bhandari. A video of this incident went viral on social media.
  • In his leisure time, he likes to travel.
  • Pradeep Bhandari’s reporting style is seen as very provocative by the masses.
  • In the 12th edition of NEWSNEXT SUMMIT 2023, when asked about the possibility of AI anchors and reporters, Pradeep Bhandari said,

    Many channels may be considering using robotic anchors but honestly AI will not be able to express human emotions. We have to understand that genuine emotions can not be manage and sometimes it can be exaggerated and that exaggeration doesn’t mean that it is wrong. However, at the end of the day I believe that people of this country, the audience is the biggest decision maker. Also, a well read journalist is bound to have an opinion and that’s also the core of journalism. Journalism for me is not reading news but also giving opinion based on facts.”

  • Jan Ki Baat has made 33 accurate election predictions as of 2023.

    Jan Ki Baat’s successful prediction

  • The Hindi edition of his book “Modi Mandate 2019” is known as “मोदी विजयगाथा.”
  • Pradeep Bhandari is a tea lover.
  • Pradeep Bhandari’s father, Dilip Bhandari, has been awarded the President Gallantry Medal for bravery.
  • Pradeep Bhandari is learning the Kannada language.