Perhaps the most high-profile leader in BJP's second generation, Pramod Mahajan has always courted controversies and remained the target of envy.
NEW DELHI: Perhaps the most high-profile leader in BJP's second generation, Pramod Mahajan has always courted controversies and remained the target of envy and attack of both his colleagues and opponents for his abilities and ambition.
A great survivor in the turbulent saffron politics, the 56-year-old Communications Minister in the previous NDA Government was not a "paratrooper" who landed on a top position from nowhere but worked his way hard up in the party hierarchy beginning with Jan Sangh and later Janata Party and the BJP.
Known for his brilliant oratory both in Marathi and Hindi, his organisational competence and his fundraising abilities, the BJP General Secretary, who holds a Bachelor's Degree in journalism and a Master's Degree in Political Science, began his career as a Sub-Editor with pro-RSS Marathi daily 'Tarun Bharat'.
Though elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 (but lost in 1998), he could never emerge as a mass leader and came to be acknowledged both by his friends and foes for his managerial skills, for his skills in dealing with people and finances.
Mahajan, who was lodged in the Nasik Central Jail during the Emergency, hogged national headlines with the BJP-Shiv Sena's electoral victory in Maharashtra in 1995, which catapulted him into the centre stage of party affairs.
BJP's evergreen and ambitious trouble-shooter, Mahajan was described as the party's 'Lakshman' by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Mumbai recently and is credited among other things with building consensus around the name of A P J Abdul Kalam for the country's Presidency and the party's victory in the Rajasthan Assembly polls in December 2003.
A right hand man of senior BJP leader L K Advani, it did not take much time for Mahajan to move closer to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who made him Defence Minister in his 13-day Government in 1996.
He went on to become Political Advisor to Vajpayee in 1998 and was later made Communications Minister. Even after Rajnath Singh took over as BJP Chief early this year, he was made General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, Goa and Uttaranchal and in-charge of poll-bound Assam.
However, controversies continued to dog him. From the flaunting of a mobile phone at the party's Mumbai plenary in 1995 to the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case and the links with corporate giant Reliance, Mahajan has remained in the headlines many times for the wrong reasons.
Nevertheless, his affable nature always proved a boon for him whether in dealing with a mercurial Bal Thackeray, returning to the Advani camp or handling the media.
His flamboyant style never went down well with the Sangh Parivar, which always resisted his ascension. He was widely held responsible for NDA's debacle in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections which saw his hi-tech poll managers using every cell phone and landline to bombard voters with election messages.
Even after the 2004 Lok Sabha defeat, the party conclave at the plush Hotel Renaissance on the banks of Powai Lake in Mumbai and the multi-course menu on spread there drew widespread criticism and was projected as a symbol of the party's decay.
From the Bollywood sets at the party's silver jubilee bash in Mumbai to the Diwali-like fireworks during Advani's Yatra at Solapur recently, Mahajan has always been the party's ultimate showman.
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