Pramod Vyankatesh Mahajan (30 October 1949 – 3 May 2006) was an Indian politician from Maharashtra. As the second-generation leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he belongs to a relatively young group of “technocratic” leaders. At the time of his death, he was in the midst of a power struggle for leadership of the BJP in the face of retiring top BJP executives.
He is a member of the Rajya Sabha and the general secretary of his party. He has only contested two Lok Sabha elections in the Mumbai-Northeast constituency. He won in 1996 but lost in 1998. As telecommunications minister to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he played a major role in India’s mobile revolution from 2001 to 2003. He is widely regarded as a successful parliamentary affairs minister due to his good relations with members of political parties of different ideologies.
On April 22, 2006, he was shot dead by his brother Pravin Mahajan in a family dispute. Thirteen days later, he died of his injuries. Pravin was sentenced to life in prison by a court in 2007.
Pramod Mahajan was born into a Deshastha Brahmin family of Venkatesh Devidas Mahajan and Prabhavati Venkatesh Mahajan in Mahbubnagar, Telangana, India. The Mahajan family moved from their home in Mahajan Gorge, Osmanabad, to Ambajogai and live in a rental house in Mangalwar Peth. Mahajan spent his childhood in Ambejogai.
He is the second child of his parents and has two brothers Prakash and Pravin and two sisters Pratibha and Pradnya. His father died when he was 21. He studied at Yogeshwari Vidyalaya and Mahavidyalaya in Bied district, Maharashtra, and at Ranade School of Journalism in Pune.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and journalism and a graduate degree in political science. He studied with Gopinath Munde at the Swami Ramanand Teerth College in Ambajogai, Maharashtra. He is a graduate of Maharashtra Certified Typing from the former Mahajan Typing Academy Ambajogai.
His love of theatre brought him close to Rekha Hamine, whom he wooed and married on March 11, 1972. They have two children, daughter Poonam and son Rahul Mahajan. Both of his children are trained pilots. His daughter is married to Anand Rao Vajendla, a Hyderabad industrialist.
Between 1971 and 1974 he worked as an English teacher at Kholeshwar College in Ambejogai before turning to active politics in an emergency.
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