Pramod Mahajan’s murder at the hands of his brother last month evoked shock and sympathy within the ranks of the Sangh Parivar that had nurtured him. But the even more bizarre death of his Man Friday Bibek Maitra and the critical condition of his son Rahul after a party at the late leader’s Safdarjang Road residence last night has triggered a sharply critical relook.

While BJP and RSS leaders kept an official silence about the latest misfortune to hit the party, in private conversations there was an outpouring of anger and dismay at the manner in which the late Mahajan’s ‘‘lifestyle-related disorders’’ were unravelling for the world to see.

“Their lifestyle was no secret in party circles. They hung around with the Mumbai fast set, loved to party, and were known to indulge in alcohol and other substances. Their contacts knew they had money and they knew their weaknesses—so anything may have happened last night,” said a BJP national executive member.

Even if there is no link between Mahajan’s murder and Maitra’s death, the many detractors of the late BJP leader see them as part of a larger narrative. ‘‘Pramod’s lifestyle is definitely responsible for the aberration of his son and aide,’’ a party insider said, pointing out that Mahajan had always turned a blind eye to Rahul’s ‘‘wayward ways’’ and given absolute power to Maitra in exchange of his absolute loyalty.

A Mumbaikar whose family moved from West Bengal to Maharashtra generations ago, Maitra revelled in the Bengali passion for ‘adda.’ Growing up in King’s Circle, in Mumbai’s Matunga, Maitra—against his father’s wishes—was drawn to the RSS and BJP and became a BJP Yuva Morcha activist in the 1980s.

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