Veteran socialist leader Mrinal Gore dead
18 July 2012 1:45 AM GMT
Veteran socialist leader Mrinal Gore, popularly known as Paaniwali Bai, died of old age problems Tuesday in a hospital in Maharashtra’s Thane district, family sources said. She was 84.
Considered the last of Maharashtra’s socialist leaders, Gore came to be known as Paaniwali Bai after she stormed into the Mumbai civic corporation headquarters and tore up papers as municipal laws did not permit water connections to slums. Other socialist leaders from her time included NG Goray, one of the founders of the socialist movement, Madhu Dandavate, a prominent opposition leader during the prime ministerial tenures of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, his wife Pramila, SM Joshi and Yusuf Meherally, who served as mayor of Bombay.
Mrinal Gore contested the civic elections in 1961 for the first time and won a seat in the then Bombay Municipal Council. She took up the issue of water connections to slums in 1964 after 11 people were killed in water riots. Gore contested the 1977 Lok Sabha general elections, held after the then prime minister Indira Gandhi revoked Emergency, on a Janata Party ticket. Owing to her catchy slogan Paaniwali Bai Delhi mein, Delhiwali Bai paani mein, she won with the highest victory margin in Maharashtra. Gore continued to serve in the state legislature and council for several terms.
Expressing his condolences, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Gore will be accorded a full state funeral in Mumbai Wednesday.
Considered the last of Maharashtra’s socialist leaders, Gore came to be known as Paaniwali Bai after she stormed into the Mumbai civic corporation headquarters and tore up papers as municipal laws did not permit water connections to slums. Other socialist leaders from her time included NG Goray, one of the founders of the socialist movement, Madhu Dandavate, a prominent opposition leader during the prime ministerial tenures of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, his wife Pramila, SM Joshi and Yusuf Meherally, who served as mayor of Bombay.
Mrinal Gore contested the civic elections in 1961 for the first time and won a seat in the then Bombay Municipal Council. She took up the issue of water connections to slums in 1964 after 11 people were killed in water riots. Gore contested the 1977 Lok Sabha general elections, held after the then prime minister Indira Gandhi revoked Emergency, on a Janata Party ticket. Owing to her catchy slogan Paaniwali Bai Delhi mein, Delhiwali Bai paani mein, she won with the highest victory margin in Maharashtra. Gore continued to serve in the state legislature and council for several terms.
Expressing his condolences, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Gore will be accorded a full state funeral in Mumbai Wednesday.
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