The fund-raiser

Heard a bang in the morning... a gunshot... BJP high-profile general secretary and party's main fund-raiser Pramod Mahajan had been shot at by his own brother Praveen Mahajan. Three bullets were pumped from point blank range into Mahajan's system but doctors are trying their best to save him. If the medical science fails, the intra-party bickering in the BJP will certainly get a new twist and the Maharashtra politics will be altered forever. After Sharad Pawar, who could have emerged as the regional satrap of Maharashtra? Mahajan has the aura but he is battling death. No BJP leader in Maharashtra can come close to Mahajan's stature. His managerial skills had earned him respect of senior party leaders. He was always there for journalists to give a quote or two. Mahajan was one of the most sough-after second generation leaders of BJP. With the battle for moving up the ladder in the party hierarchy hotting up, which eventually forced his bete noire Uma Bharati to quit the party, Mahajan's exit may put on hold the leadership battle. Though Rajnath Singh is at the helm and with full support of the RSS, Mahajan was in the reckoning but falling out for not securing a Lok Sabha victory for the party in 2004. And with full backing of Vajpayee, Mahajan was surely up there but not quite there as the former PM's stature has itself suffered post the poll defeat. For now, let's hope that the leader defeats death.