Indore: Senior Congress leader and former MLA Dr Kalpana Parulekar died on Wednesday at a private hospital here after a brief illness. She was 67. Parulekar, a firebrand leader known for raising several public issues, had represented the Mahidpur Assembly constituency in Ujjain district twice in 1998 and 2008. She was also jailed for leading violent agitations over some public issues. She was unmarried and donated her entire property to a public trust.
SUFFERING FROM HEART AILMENT Parulekar was admitted to the Medanta Hospital, Indore, on December 18, the hospital’s superintendent Dr Sanjay Geet said. “Several vital organs had stopped functioning. She breathed her last this morning,” he said. Parulekar was suffering from a heart-related ailment since a long time. A few days back, she had a kidney problem following which she was put on dialysis, he informed.
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IN FUNERAL PROCESSION Meanwhile, thousands of people including a large number of women participated in the funeral procession of Parulekar which was taken out in the evening from her ancestral house located at Mahidpur Bus Stand. On behalf of the state government, SDM Shaily Kanash placed a wreath on her mortal remains.
Her last rites were performed at ‘Satya’ crematorium located on Mahidpur Qila near the banks of river Kshipra. Her adopted daughter Gauri lit the pyre. A tribute meeting was also held under the chairmanship of Nagda-Khachrod MLA Dilip Singh Gurjar. Prominent among those present included MLAs Bahadur Singh Chouhan, Mohan Yadav and former MLA Batuk Shankar Joshi among others.
HER LANDMARKS Veteran scholar and Ashwini Shodh Kendra, Mahidpur founder Dr RC Thakur told Free Press that both of her father Dinkarrao Madhavrao Parulekar aka Veer Kaka and mother Shalini aka Kaku Bai were freedom fighters.
She was among three sisters and two brothers and one of her brother Sudhakarrao was also a freedom fighter. This family background dominated her career. After completing her school education from Mahidpur, she switched over to Ujjain for further education and also passed Llb. She was quite influenced by the JP Lohia movement.
She had also closely worked with renowned social workers Baba Amte and SN Subbarao. She did Jail Yatras for more than six times and even during her Congress party government. She launched agitation in support of daily wage employees.
On her behest, crop insurance was distributed to the farmers. She made her Mahidur tehsil liquor-free (prohibited tehsil) in Madhya Pradesh for the first time. She also fought several struggles for the mill labourers, tempo owners, brothels, etc. She remained active in Congress politics till end of her life though joined the Nationalist Congress Party and Aam Aadmi Party in 2003 and 2013, respectively.