Who will sing that song for me now, wonders Mahajan mother

Watching the distraught Prabhavati, they wept inconsolably, embracing each other.

It was on the Friday night before Pramod was shot that Prabhavati had lovingly fed him dinner she had cooked, an evening she could not forget as she was forced to bid farewell.

Running high fever today, Prabhavati refused to eat, or drink tea or a drop of water, though the family urged her to eat so she could take a Crocin tablet.

‘‘Prabhavati had high fever today,’’ BJP leader Jaywantiben Mehta, a close friend of the Mahajans, told The Indian Express. ‘‘She says one can replace a husband or wife but not a son you lose.’’

Mehta says Prabhavati now often recalls the hard days after Pramod lost his father Venkatesh. Pramod would sing a song from Mother India to Prabhavati—mujhe jeena hi padega—I must live on. Today she wonders aloud who will sing this song for her.

‘‘Prabhavati’s taking it very badly. She even fainted once,’’ said a senior BJP leader. ‘‘This is a double blow for her.’’

But one young man in blue jeans and white shirt who stayed stoic through the farewell and consoled others with a hug as they wept—from BJP president Rajnath Singh to Munde, Poonam or Prabhavati—was son Rahul.

Until Prabhavati arrived, Prakash and Munde were grimly composed. At 7 am, an hour before Pramod’s body arrived, Prakash sat alone, shoulders slumped, not shedding a tear. Munde arrived and quickly reviewed arrangements at the white pandal erected overnight, from where Pramod’s final journey out of the Worli highrise would begin.

As the coffin wrapped in the BJP flag arrived at 8 am, Prakash lent a shoulder to bear it to the dais where it rested on a bed of flowers. But once on the dais, Rekha and Prabhavati fell on the coffin, weeping. A pale Poonam collapsed by her father’s side too, until Munde, also moved to tears, helped her up. ‘‘Baba, baba,’’ Poonam whispered.

Prabhavati, Poonam and Rekha sat with Munde’s family on the front row, silent and stunned, sharing a box of paper tissues between them. Prabhavati slumped in her seat, shaking her head in disbelief, as women consoled her.

As the BJP leadership including L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Munde and BJP’s state chief Nitin Gadkari removed the party flag from the coffin, they could not hold back tears. Singh had barely touched the coffin when he broke down, weeping into his handkerchief, until Rahul embraced him.

In a corner stood Poonam, Prakash silently crying behind her, as she rested one hand on the coffin. Before the coffin was draped in tricolour, Munde carefully wiped dust off its surface with his hand for the family to take one last look.

As Mahajan was carried away, the family huddled in a corner watching, while Rekha fainted. Friends say she can’t bear returning home minus Pramod, and is staying with the Mundes.

Before she followed her father, barefoot, Poonam collected some marigold flowers strewn on the coffin, and knotted them in her dupatta. But on the 13th floor, a mother had stayed behind.

Seeing her overcome with grief, Rahul had earlier led her back inside the house, an arm around her shoulder. She stayed inside, crying for the eldest son who left home never to return, and the youngest who never showed up.

Both rath yatras cancelled as BJP bids farewell

• Mahajan cremated with full state honours at Shivaji Park cremation grounds

• Hundreds join funeral procession from Worli home

• Leaders cut across party lines to attend funeral

• Shekhawat, Vajpayee, Advani, Sudarshan, Pawar, Fernandes, Vilasrao, all BJP CMs among those present

• BJP cancels Advani, Rajnathyatras