Mumbai, July 17: Veteran socialist Mrinal Gore, who championed the cause of Mumbai’s middle class and earned the sobriquet “Paaniwali Bai” for her battle for drinking water for slum dwellers, passed away after a heart attack today. She was 84.

Born in 1928, Gore left a career in medicine to focus on social work. She married fellow socialist Keshav Gore in 1948 and began working in Goregaon, then a rural area that became part of Mumbai’s western suburbs.

In the run-up to the Emergency, prices of essential commodities had shot up amid reports of blackmarketing. Gore initiated the Anti-Price Rise Committee and spearheaded a protest. She went underground during the Emergency and was later jailed.

In 1977, she was elected to Parliament on a Janata Party ticket but refused a cabinet berth. She set up Swadhar, a support centre for victims of domestic violence, in 1983.

In 1985, during her second stint as an MLA, she introduced a bill to prevent sex-determination tests. She battled cancer for a few years before renewing her street protests, this time against multinationals and large dams. She took part in the anti-Enron and Narmada dam protests.

Hours before Gore died, RSS ideologue and two-time BJP MP Bal Apte lost a 12-day battle against chronic lung disease. He was 73.