Background
Pramod Mahajan was born in a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family in Mahabubnagar in Andhra Pradesh. Born to Venkatesh Devidas Mahajan and Prabhavati Venkatesh Mahajan, he was the second child amongst five children born to the couple. He had two brothers, Prakash and Pravin, and two sisters Pratibha and Pradnya. The family moved from Osmanabad to Ambajogai in a rented flat in Mangalwar Peth. Pramod Mahajan lost his father when he was just 21 years old. He completed his formal education from Yogeshwari Vidyalaya and Mahavidyalaya in Beed district of Maharashtra state. He later took admission in Ranade Institute of Journalism, Pune where he obtained his bachelor's degree in physics and journalism. He attained a post graduate degree in political science from the same college. Pramod Mahajan started his career as an English teacher at Koleshwar College in Ambajogai from 1971 to 1974, after which he joined politics on the wake of the Emergency Period.
Career
Pramod Mahajan started his career as an English teacher at Koleshwar College in Ambajogai from 1971 to 1974, after which he joined politics on the wake of the Emergency Period.Since childhood, Pramod Mahajan was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). However, he took active participation only when he started working as a sub-editor in the party's Marathi magazine, "Tarun Bharat", in the years 1970 and 1971. He stood against the emergency period declared by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was imprisoned in Nasik jail until the state of emergency was lifted. When Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980, he was one of selected RSS members who were absorbed into BJP. Pramod Mahajan served as the general secretary of BJP state until 1985. In between, he became the All India Secretary of BJP from 1983 to 1985. He fought for Lok Sabha elections in 1984 but failed. Thereafter, he was selected as the president of All India Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1986. He served this position on another occasions from 1990 to 1992. It was due to his determination, hard work, and consistency that he was raised from state (Maharashtra politics) to national level. Mahajan was always keen on ruling the political world at a national level. However, he did not ignore his home state and made significant efforts in improving the party's fortune in Maharashtra. To help him out, his childhood friend-turned brother-in-law Gopinath Munde (married to sister Pradnya) partnered with him. With this, Pramod Mahajan was alleged to maintain and begin relations with Shiv Sena that went ahead with fighting in state assembly elections in 1995. The party won the elections and ruled till 1999. Though both BJP and RSS were reluctant in joining hands with Shiv Sena, Mahajan continued to support the party on the belief that the tie-up was only for political purposes and had nothing to do with the extremist beliefs of Shiv Sena. However, in recent times, Shiv Sena has been suffering from a decline in their fortunes. Mahajan was believed to have alerted the party before he broke off with Shiv Sena, simply because he wanted BJP to gain more power and rule the state. Mahajan's rule was not confined to state politics. In the late 1980s, he gained national recognition when he helped BJP President Lal Krishna Advani in organizing a Rath Yatra in 1990. He was touted to be one of the most responsible persons for helping his party members win elections, though he himself rarely contested or won. He fought for Rajya Sabha and elected to the Parliament through several elections in 1986-92, 1992-96, 1998-2004, and 2004. Though he was even elected to Lok Sabha in 1996, but lost when he stood for the second time in 1998. With the Lok Sabha elections in 1996, BJP started coming to power and ruling the political world. With this, Mahajan was appointed as Defense Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry that lasted for just 13 days. Back in power with the 1998 elections, Mahajan was selected as advisor to the Prime Minister, but he resigned from his post to stand for Rajya Sabha elections in 1998. On winning, Pramod Mahajan was chosen as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, and Food Processing in December 1998. Later in October 1999, he was transferred to Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources. However, just a month later, he resigned from Water Resources and took up Information Technology, along with Parliamentary Affairs. In 2001, he was appointed into the Communications ministry, an industry already undergoing several controversies. According to the telecom policy formulated in 1994, the telecom companies were allowed to participate in cellular telephony after open bidding, on the payment of a certain amount of fees. However, most companies failed to pay the fees and the then Communications Minister, Jagmohan tried taking strict action against them. But he was sacked. The, then, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took charge of the ministry and managed the New Telecom Policy, 1999 himself. His moves were highly criticized for changing the rules midway and bringing about heavy losses to the government. But when Mahajan took charge in 2001, he implemented the policy perfectly that brought about huge profits to the industry, thus generating exceptional growth. But that was not all for Mahajan as he was faced with a dispute from Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie on the privatization of VSNL. As such, he was dropped out of the cabinet in 2003 and was succeeded by Shourie. Thereafter, Mahajan was appointed as the General Secretary of BJP. Mahajan won the assembly elections in 2003 and was appointed in charge of Rajasthan. Interestingly, out of the four states where the elections took place, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, BJP won in three states. Impressed by his marvelous performance in the elections, Mahajan was given the responsibility of holding the election campaign in 2004. However, BJP performed terribly ill and lost power to Indian National Congress.