Pune, Sept. 12 -- Senior Congress leader and socialist thinker Ratnakar Mahajan died in Pune early Saturday, ending a decades-long political career that spanned the Emergency, the Janata movement, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The final rites of Mahajan, who breathed his last late on Friday, will be performed at Vaikunth crematorium on Saturday afternoon, his family members said.

Mahajan, who was imprisoned during the Emergency, was among Maharashtra's prominent socialist voices and remained active in public life for decades. He had also served as executive chairman of the Maharashtra State Planning Board and later held important organisational responsibilities in the Congress, including as a senior spokesperson...