Kulkarni (87) is survived by a son and two daughters.
He started taking part in the country's freedom movement since his school days. In 1942, he smuggled pamphlets relating to the freedom movement in a tea kettle and was apprehended by the police at Dadar in Mumbai (then Bombay).
Following this, he served a year in jail.
In 1961, he became the secretary of the Transport and Dock Workers' Union and was a close associate of former Union minister George Fernandes.
Kulkarni was the chief of the legal cell of the Mumbai Congress Committee.