from daijiworld's special correspondent (MB)

Panaji, May 18: While the BJP is busy working out its election campaign and crafting strategy for June 2 assembly polls in Goa, there is one person whom the party is immensely missing in their camp - the late Pramod Mahajan.

"We took political lessons from him (Mahajan). He was a guru for most of us in Goa BJP," the party's state unit president Shripad Naik said, talking about the dynamic leader who passed away on May 3 last year in Mumbai.

Mahajan, ex-general secretary and Goa desk incharge, knew most of the Goa BJP workers by their first names. Right from 1988, when BJP was a lesser known political outfit in the coastal state, Mahajan had been in charge of Goa offairs.

"People still remember him and while on our election campaign people talk about him and miss him.... He used to win people's heart with his attitude and speeches," Naik said.

As a tribute, the Goa BJP has installed a portrait of Mahajan in its Panaji Headquarters, where leaders usually sit and decide strategies. "We strongly feel his absence," he added.

The BJP has drafted its spokesman and former union minister Rajeev Pratap Rudy to replace Mahajan. "There cannot be any alternative to Mahajan. Rudy is not an alternative to Mahajan though he is a leader of national stature and has managed to understand the state party organization very well," Naik said. "Rudy is certainly a good leader... But there cannot be a comparison between the two leaders."

Mahajan, who saw BJP's rise to power in Goa, had canvassed even during 2005 by-poll when Manohar Parrikar's BJP government was pulled down to form the Congress-led Rane administration. "He was a moral support for us and everyone misses him," Naik stated.