<p>Gopinath Pandurang Munde, who could have become the first BJP Chief Minister in Maharashtra later this year, joins a list of senior leaders whom death snatched away when they were at the pinnacle of their political career.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Pramod Mahajan: A top BJP leader of his times and Munde’s brother-in-law, Pramod Mahajan also had a tragic end when his own brother Praveen shot him dead in his flat in Mumbai in 2006. Praveen later died of brain haemorrhage in jail in 2010.<br /><br />Perished in mishaps<br /><br />From the Congress’ Rajesh Pilot to party colleague Sahib Singh Verma and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, an array of political leaders have lost their lives to accidents, while leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated. <br /><br />Munde, the 64-year-old BJP leader, is also one among ministers like Mohan Kumaramangalam (killed in an air crash in 1973), L N Mishra (killed in a bomb explosion in 1975) and R Kumaramangalam (died in 2000 from blood cancer) who breathed their last due to accidents when they were in the Union Cabinet. <br /><br />-L N Mishra: Mishra was the first Union Minister to become the target of killers on January 3, 1975 when a bomb explosion took his life while he was at a function to declare open the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line. The killers are yet to be identified even as an investigation has been on for the past 38 years.<br /><br />- M Kumaramangalam: A Communist theorist who later joined Congress and became a minister in the Indira Gandhi government, M Kumaramangalam died when an Indian Airlines plane crashed near Delhi airport on May 30, 1973. <br /><br />Very few among the dead could be identified but the relatives of the minister managed to identify his body by means of a pen and his hearing aid. Incidentally, Kumaramangalam’s grandson and wife were in the ill-fated MH-370 of Malaysia Airlines that went missing in March this year and are yet to be traced.<br /><br />-Rangarajan Kumaramangalam: Like his father, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, a Congressman who later joined BJP and became a minister in the Vajpayee government, also died while in office at the age of 48 in 2000.<br /><br />-Sanjay Gandhi, then a Congress MP, was another high-profile leader who lost his life when the plane he was flying crashed near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi on June 23, 1980.<br /><br />-Rajesh Pilot, a rising star in Congress, also met with a tragic end on June 11, 2000 when he died in car accident near Jaipur. <br /><br />-Madhavrao Scindia: Rajesh Pilot’s contemporary and another prominent Congress leader, Madhavrao Scindia, also died in an air crash in Uttar Pradesh on September 30, 2001. <br /><br />-G M C Balayogi: Like Reddy in 2009 and former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu (2011), then Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi (TDP) breathed his last in a helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh in on March 3, 2002. Former Union Minister K Yerrain Naidu (TDP) also died in a road accident two years ago.<br /><br />- Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy: A YSR Congress MLA Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy died in April this year in a road accident days before the Assembly elections.</p>
<p>Gopinath Pandurang Munde, who could have become the first BJP Chief Minister in Maharashtra later this year, joins a list of senior leaders whom death snatched away when they were at the pinnacle of their political career.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Pramod Mahajan: A top BJP leader of his times and Munde’s brother-in-law, Pramod Mahajan also had a tragic end when his own brother Praveen shot him dead in his flat in Mumbai in 2006. Praveen later died of brain haemorrhage in jail in 2010.<br /><br />Perished in mishaps<br /><br />From the Congress’ Rajesh Pilot to party colleague Sahib Singh Verma and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, an array of political leaders have lost their lives to accidents, while leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated. <br /><br />Munde, the 64-year-old BJP leader, is also one among ministers like Mohan Kumaramangalam (killed in an air crash in 1973), L N Mishra (killed in a bomb explosion in 1975) and R Kumaramangalam (died in 2000 from blood cancer) who breathed their last due to accidents when they were in the Union Cabinet. <br /><br />-L N Mishra: Mishra was the first Union Minister to become the target of killers on January 3, 1975 when a bomb explosion took his life while he was at a function to declare open the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line. The killers are yet to be identified even as an investigation has been on for the past 38 years.<br /><br />- M Kumaramangalam: A Communist theorist who later joined Congress and became a minister in the Indira Gandhi government, M Kumaramangalam died when an Indian Airlines plane crashed near Delhi airport on May 30, 1973. <br /><br />Very few among the dead could be identified but the relatives of the minister managed to identify his body by means of a pen and his hearing aid. Incidentally, Kumaramangalam’s grandson and wife were in the ill-fated MH-370 of Malaysia Airlines that went missing in March this year and are yet to be traced.<br /><br />-Rangarajan Kumaramangalam: Like his father, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, a Congressman who later joined BJP and became a minister in the Vajpayee government, also died while in office at the age of 48 in 2000.<br /><br />-Sanjay Gandhi, then a Congress MP, was another high-profile leader who lost his life when the plane he was flying crashed near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi on June 23, 1980.<br /><br />-Rajesh Pilot, a rising star in Congress, also met with a tragic end on June 11, 2000 when he died in car accident near Jaipur. <br /><br />-Madhavrao Scindia: Rajesh Pilot’s contemporary and another prominent Congress leader, Madhavrao Scindia, also died in an air crash in Uttar Pradesh on September 30, 2001. <br /><br />-G M C Balayogi: Like Reddy in 2009 and former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu (2011), then Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi (TDP) breathed his last in a helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh in on March 3, 2002. Former Union Minister K Yerrain Naidu (TDP) also died in a road accident two years ago.<br /><br />- Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy: A YSR Congress MLA Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy died in April this year in a road accident days before the Assembly elections.</p>