BJP supporters hold up a portrait of Gopinath Munde during a memorial ceremony at party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Call it coincidence, but the number three appears ominous for the Munde-Mahajan family.
While Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde died in a car accident today (June 3rd), three of the family members and one close aide of the two BJP leaders have also died on the third day of a month.
The tragic trail unfolded with the death of Mr Munde's brother-in-law Pramod Mahajan. It was on May 3, 2006 that Mr Mahajan died in a Mumbai hospital after prolonged attempts to revive him from bullet injuries failed.
Mr Mahajan struggled for his life for 13 days after he was shot at by his estranged elder brother Pravin.
Pravin shot him with his licensed .32 pistol inside the latter's apartment in Mumbai on April 22, 2006 following a dispute. Four bullets were fired. The first missed Pramod, but the other three were lodged in his liver and pancreas, damaging several internal organs. He was sentenced to life in prison by a trial court in Mumbai in 2007.
A month later, on June 3, 2006, Mr Mahajan's personal aide Vivek Moitra was found dead in his official bungalow in Delhi. Mr Mahajan's Rahul was als found unconscious after a party in which drinks and drugs were allegedly consumed.
The third day of a month proved fatal once again on March 3, 2010 when Pravin Mahajan passed away in a Thane hospital after failing to respond to weeks of treatment following a brain hemorrhage.
Mr Munde too died in a hospital in New Delhi on the third day of this month apparently of shock and cardiac arrest suffered during the road accident early this morning.