Mumbai: Friends and family of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan got together to remember him on his first death anniversary on Thursday—they remembered him as a man of action, vision and stature.
"I don't know if Mahajan had a premonition but during the 2004 Maharashtra assembly elections he told us that these were the last elections he would handle," said former deputy CM and BJP leader Gopinath Munde.
"He said you will have to manage the next elections, including raising resources," said Munde, the late politician’s brother-in-law and friend of 39 years.
Mahajan was not a keen follower of rituals but turned towards religion months before his death. “Two months before he died, Mahajan told me that he wanted to undertake a pilgrimage. He did undertake the pilgrimage and sported rudraksh mala after returning from the religious tour,” Munde was quoted by PTI as saying.
Mahajan’s children, Rahul and Poonam, attended the function. Poonam, who has joined the BJP, said completing her father’s “vision for the party and the country will be the true homage to him."
"We in the family did not realise just how great he was. It was only during the 12 days (from April 22 when he was shot and May 3 when he died) that we realised the magnitude of his stature," she said.
Dwelling on Mahajan's love for art, Poonam recalled how in the 1980s her father had missed a day's proceedings of an important party meeting in Rajasthan just to attend a ghazal concert by maestro Ghulam Ali.
"I don t know if it was to Vajpayee or Advani, but Mahajan lied, saying his mother was ill and rushed to Pune to attend the concert," she recalled.
Reciting a poem, Poonam compared Mahajan to the "sun which had gone to the home of darkness while promising us the sunrise". "He has left us a legacy and we have to fulfil it as a mission," an emotional daughter said, paying rich tributes to her illustrious father.
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