The designer clothes, Rayban and Reebok spoke of his love for glamour and the good life. Yet Pramod Mahajan was no showboy, but a doer and astute manager who helped the BJP win tricky elections and make a success of crucial political campaigns like the Ram rath yatra.

If politics can be compared to chess, Mahajan’s death amounts to the loss of a grandmaster for his embattled party, none of whose “second rung” leaders possess his organisational skill, determination and shrewdness ? and the ability to hide chutzpah under a varnish of suave personal charm.

These skills, so useful to the party, were of no little use to his own career. Mahajan was the man who could get away with almost anything.

In recent years, the flamboyant functionary ? among the first to flaunt a cell phone among leading Indian politicians ? was chased by sexual and financial scandals that would have wrecked the career of most. He had also annoyed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by ushering in the “five-star, corporate culture” in the BJP.

He was openly accused of an affair with and the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar. That he was the BJP’s link to big money was no secret: he almost flaunted his connections with the Ambanis and some other top businessmen.

Yet he kept his job in the Union cabinet and continued to be a favourite with the party’s final court of appeal, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. And he remained enough of a swayamsevak to make himself useful ? that word again ? during the frequent Sangh-BJP standoffs.

It was his “usefulness” ?especially in raising funds? that was his USP to the saffron parivar.

L.K. Advani may have been the grand strategist, but it was to Mahajan he would turn for the execution of his boldest plans.

Starting from the Ram rath yatra that put the party firmly on India’s political map, Mahajan was at the helm of every big event. He had sat next to Advani on the chariot journey in 1990. The smallest detail ? from where the workers would eat to whether the air-conditioning in the chariot was working -- didn’t escape him.

The BJP owed the spectacular conquest of Rajasthan to Mahajan, who pulled the rug from under the Congress’s feet during the 2003 Assembly elections. The BJP led by a record 120 seats in a 200-member House in what most newspapers speculated was a “rigged” election. The charge, like many others, could never be proved.

Part of the reason was Mahajan’s ability to go on denying accusations till most people almost believed him or lost interest.

After the WLL scandal broke ? it was alleged that Reliance Infocomm was allowed to launch the service as a full mobility service without paying the required licence fee when Mahajan was Union telecom minister ? he rang up a reporter one evening.

Voice shaking with indignation, he demanded: “Who has fed you this? This is the problem with you people: you write about things you don’t really understand.”

He was shrewd enough not to mention specific details in the news report; neither did he bother to officially deny it. The idea was to send a personal message that he was clean; and as usual, he almost managed it.

During the six years of National Democratic Alliance rule, Pramod was the BJP’s “all-purpose” man, managing elections and functions and overseeing the party’s performance in Parliament. Despite his relative inexperience, he was arguably one of the better parliamentary affairs ministers in recent times.

For all the mockery heaped by his more “sophisticated” party rivals on the gaudiness surrounding the events he supervised, it was Mahajan whom the workers favoured. He was the man who organised funds and got things done.

In an era of coalitions, the BJP has lost and gained many partners. But the one alliance that Mahajan personally nurtured was with the Shiv Sena ? a most difficult task with the mercurial Bal Thackeray in charge. Even Mahajan’s critics agree that without him, the BJP would never have been able to cuddle the Sena tiger.

As with all big events, the 2004 elections were handled by Mahajan. It was to him that most of the flak, too, was directed after the unexpected defeat. But true to his reputation of being a survivor, Mahajan resurrected himself sooner than many had expected, largely thanks to his past relations with new party chief Rajnath Singh.

Mahajan had just finished with the Assam elections and would have gone on to manage the next general elections, too, had his younger brother not stopped him short at breakfast time on a fateful Saturday morning.