Departures of note

Ratnakar Mahajan was a prominent socialist thinker and politician in Maharashtra whose career spanned the Emergency, the Janata movement, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Imprisoned during the Emergency, he was among Maharashtra's leading socialist voices and remained active in public life for decades. He served as executive chairman of the Maharashtra State Planning Board and later held senior organisational roles in the Congress, including as a senior spokesperson and vice-president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).

His political journey reflected the shifting currents of Maharashtra politics. A socialist leader, he joined the Congress from the Janata Dal fold in the early 1990s, left in 1999 to remain with the Pawar-led NCP for over a decade, and eventually returned to the Congress. In 2010, while a senior NCP leader, he wrote an open letter to Sharad Pawar suggesting the party merge with the Congress, a controversial proposal that triggered strong reactions and led to his resignation from the NCP.

Mahajan was known for articulating his political views independently, drawing on his socialist background and long association with public movements. He died in Pune in September 2026 at the age of 80.