Pramod killed, Pravin dead; Mahajan family in tatters

Mumbai: The Mahajan family saga is once again playing out in full public glare. Most of the Mahajan family was absent at the last rites of Pravin Mahajn, the man who killed his brother and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.

Pramod' son Rahul has distanced himself from the political legacy of his father and is busy choosing a bride for himself on a TV reality show.

In Thane Pravin's funeral was a low key affair. Pravin, convicted for killing Pramod, died in a Thane hospital on Wednesday after being in a coma for two months.

While most members of the Mahajan family stayed away from his last rites, the only one present was eldest brother Prakash Mahajan.

"I was as close to Pravin as I was to Pramod. Now I'm totally alone," said Prakash.

With Pravin's death, the reason why he shot at his brother too is buried even though he had insisted he didn't kill Pramod.

"I have not killed Pramod, it was an accident. My bhabhi (sister-in-law) and domestic help told in court that they saw me firing at Pramod which is not true. I will go to Supreme Court," Pravin had said on December 1, 2009.

Ironically, in the same week Rahul Mahajan will be seen marrying a girl chosen during a TV show, continuing his stint as a reality TV star and distancing himself completely from his father's legacy.

Rahul's own brushes with controversies seem to now be history - be it his divorce with first wife Shweta Singh, who also accused him of abuse, or his hospitalisation after a cocaine overdose, just a month after his father's death in 2006.

While Pramod Mahajan's daughter is trying to follow his footsteps, Poonam Mahajan seems to be struggling to find her feet after unsuccessfully contesting the Maharashtra Assembly elections last year.

For political observers who had watched the rise of the Mahajan family, the fall from the highs of political power has been a real tragedy.

Brother-in-law Gopinath Munde is now the BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, but the rest of the family must live with the reality of how the Mahajan family legacy lies in tatters today.