As the 33-year-old former pilot prepares for her second electoral battle, Poonam Mahajan comes up against the inevitable question of political dynasty.
The daughter of the slain BJP leader, Pramod Mahajan, is the party candidate for Mumbai North-Central. Her opponent Priya Dutt has also inherited the political mantle from her father, actor and former Union Minister Sunil Dutt.
“It’s not fair to say I benefited from dynasty. I have worked for the party for the last eight years. It has tried and tested me,” Ms. Mahajan argues.
This will be Ms. Mahajan’s first Lok Sabha election. She contested the 2009 Assembly election from Mumbai and lost. Her selection this time is considered a boost to her uncle, Gopinath Munde, who is battling to control the State unit of the BJP.
Yet Ms. Mahajan has been offered a tough seat, one for which, sources say, the party found no willing candidate. Several declined to contest against Ms. Dutt, a two-time MP who won by 1.74 lakh votes in 2009.
“I am not worried. There is huge anti-incumbency and a Modi wave. The popularity of the current MP is waning. This election is not about me, it’s about the party,” she says.
Although her father contested thrice from Mumbai, it was from the adjoining North East constituency, for which BJP leader Kirit Somaiya bagged the ticket. After losing in 1998, Pramod Mahajan shifted focus, strategising for the party.
Married to a businessman, she has a nine-year-old son and one-year-old daughter.
Ms. Mahajan is not concerned about the rift between the BJP and its ally, Shiv Sena, impacting her campaign. Her father, she points out, was the architect of the alliance. “Balasaheb Thackeray considered my father his son. It was an emotional bond. I have no doubt the Shiv Sena will support me.”
The last eight years, she admits, have been hard on her family, referring to her father’s murder by his own brother in 2006, followed by the drug case involving her elder brother Rahul Mahajan. “It takes time but my family gave me strength.”
