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Friday, May 05, 2006

National

National

Pall of gloom in BJP headquarters

Neena Vyas

Twin yatras as also the May 10 rally marking their culmination stand cancelled

INCONSOLABLE: Pramod Mahajan's grieving mother is supported by her son-in-law Gopinath Munde and son Prakash at Mahajan's residence in Mumbai on Thursday. - PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: A pall of gloom descended on the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party here on Thursday even as late general secretary Pramod Mahajan's body was consigned to flames in Mumbai.

In deep grief

The first casualty in the party after Mahajan's death were the twin `yatras' of party president Rajnath Singh and Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani. A terse statement released here by the party office said that Mr. Singh had announced the cancellation of the remaining legs of the `yatras' as the party was in deep grief over the untimely demise of one of its most brilliant organisers.

Mr. Advani's `yatra' was halted in Dausa, Rajasthan, on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as reports came of the worsening condition of Mahajan, who had been battling for his life in Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital after being shot at point-blank range by his youngest brother Pravin Mahajan in his Worli home on April 22 morning.

Mr. Singh's `yatra' was in Amritsar when he rushed to Mumbai on Wednesday. Mr. Singh has also cancelled his `yatra' after consulting his party colleagues. The May 10 rally scheduled to be held here to mark the culmination of the twin `Suraksha Yatras' also stands cancelled.

`Shanti path' held

As Mahajan's body was placed on the funeral pyre and lit by his son Rahul in Mumbai, a `shanti path' was organised at the BJP headquarters.

Party workers, activists in the Sangh organisation and a large number of BJP leaders were here to attend the `path' and sign the condolence register.

The immediate reaction of one and all was that Mahajan's death was a "big loss for the BJP."

A humble functionary in the party office said: "Even those BJP leaders who were Pramodji's archrivals are grieving. They all know that even they could depend on him."

Condolence meet

The party's leaders, who are all away in Mumbai, are expected to return here by Friday. A condolence meeting is expected to be organised in a couple of days.

In Mumbai, a long line of VIPs placed wreaths on the body of Pramod Mahajan and paid their last respects at the crematorium.They were: Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat; the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani; BJP president Rajnath Singh; party leaders Yashwant Sinha, Venkaiah Naidu, V.K. Malhotra, Arun Jaitley and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi; Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna; Motilal Vora (representing Congress president Sonia Gandhi); Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar; Aviation Minister Praful Patel; Petroleum Minister Murli Deora; Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Narendra Modi, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Nitish Kumar, Arjun Munda and Raman Singh; the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes; BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu; Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K.S. Sudarshan; Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia; Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal; the former Goa Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar; Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi; Shiv Sena executive president Udhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil, Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, Public Works Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and other Ministers were present, as also R.S. Gavai from the Republican Party of India (Gavai) and Ramdas Athavale from the Republican Party of India.

Mr. Deshmukh cancelled all his meetings.

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