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| Social activist Mrianl Gore with BJP leader Ram Naik [FILE PHOTO] |
Mumbai: Indian veteran socialist leader and former MP Mrinal Gore passed away on Tuesday in a hospital in Maharashtra's Thane district after a brief illness, family sources said. She was 84.
Gore came to be known as "Paaniwali Bai" for her irresistible efforts in bringing drinking water supply to slums of Goregaon, a Mumbai suburb.
Other socialist leaders from her time included N.G. 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, S.M. Joshi and Yusuf Meherally, who served as mayor of Bombay.
A pioneer and visionary, Gore was one of the last of the Socialist pillars in Maharashtra.
Mrinaltai, as she is respectfully referred , Gore was elected to Parliament on a Janata Party ticket in 1977.
Gore belonged to that special set of women who took to politics in a period when it was virtually unthinkable for women to be involved in public work.
Gore, however, continued to serve in the state legislature and council for several terms.
Several politician and social activists including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and many others have expressed condolence over the Gore’s demise.