State BJP will miss Mahajan?s skills

BJP LEADERS wistfully recalled departed leader Pramod Mahajan?s key role in anointment of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister in November last year?s coup d?etat.

BJP LEADERS wistfully recalled departed leader Pramod Mahajan’s key role in anointment of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister in November last year’s coup d’état. 

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Many of them said of all the State’s party leaders the Chief Minister will miss  Pramod Mahajan most. It was Pramod Mahajan’s deft strategy and persuasive skills that enabled Chouhan’s enthronement.

In Mahajan, the Chief Minister had found a mentor who could ably guide him through the thorn-littered path ahead, they said. 

The demise of master strategist has dealt a severe blow to the BJP leaders who would have required his services in the face of onslaught from Bharatiya Janshakti party president Uma Bharti in coming days. In his rising political graph spanning two decades, Mahajan had befriended many State BJP leaders. They used to marvel at his political and managerial skills.

The skills came handy for the State unit at the time of the turbulent change of guard over five months back. A BJP leader recalled that Uma Bharti might have sought to appropriate full credit for spectacular victory in the 2003 assembly elections in MP, but the fact was that Pramod Mahajan in tandem with Arun Jaitely made the historic win possible with backroom maneuverings to a great extent.

“If Shivraj Singh Chouhan is chief minister today it is all due to Mahajan”, remarked a minister. A master strategist that he was, Mahajan pulled the strings behind the curtain to install Chouhan as the CM.

While his party colleagues from Delhi returned immediately after the BJP Legislature Party meet, Mahajan stayed put and watched all the developments in Uma Bharti camp.

Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was present in Mumbai to pay homage to the departed soul, today said Mahajan was unparalleled. To find a person like him who was embodiment of several qualities like organisational skill, good oration, fund raising is as next to impossible, he added.

During his November visit to the State, Pramod Mahajan had politely turned down a senior leader’s request for breakfast with him at his residence. He said he would have breakfast with party workers. He even had lunch in the party office with some office-bearers only.