Mahajan affairs an open book

This is one family album that is flying off shelves. Pravin Mahajan’s tell-all book, Maza Album (My Album), has set the gossip mills churning with its tell-all details on slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s public and private life. The book reveals the history of the strained relationship between the brothers, as well as Pramod’s various romances and Gopinath Munde’s alleged affair with Barkha, a lavani dancer.

“It gives me immense pain to recollect those memories. As it is, the loneliness in jail is bothersome and all those memories of our family and the last few months keep flashing before my eyes…It is like a documentary film…I become sad after seeing them repeatedly, so I decided to document them,” writes Pravin in the book.

Defending his decision to reveal details about his brother, whom he is convicted of having shot and killed, Pravin seems prepared for the storm that his revelations may set in motion. “Obviously reading my album, many BJP and RSS leaders will get upset with me.
I would like to tell them that Pramod as a person was not limited to the boundaries of our family life. His was a public life due to the political party, he was left with no private life…Those around him knew of his affairs although he may have thought they were ‘confidential’,” he writes.

The bulk of the book revolves around Pramod’s numerous alleged affairs, including with Alaknanda, which rocked his marriage with Rekha Mahajan, according to the book. 

“Late at night Aai (mother) knocked on my door and said Pramod wants to speak to you. Suddenly Vahini (sister-in-law) spoke to me. She said your brother is preparing for his second marriage, and the girl had come to their house with a mangalsutra… When we reached, Pramod sobbed uncontrollably and admitted that their affair had been going on for two years,” reveals the book. 

Pravin also highlights the complicated relationship Gopinath Munde shared with Pramod Mahajan, which he claims was a tangle of their personal affairs and political tussles. “Pramod’s relations with Gopinathrao were strange. He never said that he would make Gopinath the chief minister of Maharashtra… in the 1990 elections, Pramod was keener on becoming the chief minister himself,” Pravin writes.

The book also reveals details of Gopinath Munde’s alleged affair with Barkha. “Usually when a person’s character begins getting tainted, outsiders learn of the happenings before the family itself learns of it. Be it Pramod or Gopinath, reporters, leaders, industrialists knew a lot more than the family itself. Gopinath was to meet Kushabhau Thackre after the Barkha affair and was shivering,” writes Pravin.

When DNA contacted Munde, he said he had not read the book and nothing about him had been mentioned. “I am a witness in the murder case. I do not want to comment on what he has written in that book,” Munde said. Asked about his alleged affair with Barkha, he added, “I have not read the book and will not read it. He has written nothing about me.”

Pravin also claims that Shweta Singh, (ex-wife of Rahul Mahajan) lived at his Worli apartment in 1995, until Mahajan had to send her off at his son’s insistence.

The most emotional passages in the book, however, are those that speak of Pravin’s concern for his wife Sarangi and his children. “My wife and two children were left helpless by the rest of my family. I am proud of my children’s board results. Sarangi gets all the credit along with her mother and two brothers with whose help they are trying to face the situation,” says the book. Sarangi, when contacted, asked us to speak to her brother.

“Pravin has written his side of the story. Till now people have not known that side to him. Moreover Pravin has not written only negative things, he has written even good things about his brother,” says Prashant Pulliwar, Sarangi’s brother. “Till now all 3,000 copies have been sold out. We will launch the second edition soon and then another one in English too.”