Former President Pranab Mukherjee had “shocked” Sonia Gandhi by hinting at his “long-held desire” to become Prime Minister during a conversation with her in 2010, suggesting that perhaps it was time for a “change at the top”, the former Congress president has written in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love .
Mukherjee, then a senior member of the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, had developed serious differences with the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. He would sometimes stay back for conversations with Ms. Gandhi after meetings of the Congress Strategy Group, which was set up to discuss parliamentary business.
“On one occasion, in 2010, I think after expressing his frustration, he shocked me with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for a change at the top, which I understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become Prime Minister,” she wrote.
The late Mukherjee, who had served in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet in the 1970s, was part of a core group that met weekly with Dr. Singh to coordinate the functioning of the government and the party. Other members included Arjun Singh, A.K. Antony and Ahmed Patel. Ms. Hitting back at Ms. On her relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ms.
Gandhi says she often called on Mukherjee after he became President in 2012, largely to converse with the “erudite and knowledgeable politician that he always remained”. Gandhi, Sharmistha Mukherjee, the late President’s daughter, said it was not a crime to be ambitious. Gandhi said she had “practically no real contact” with him. At semi-official gatherings, they exchange formal namastes , but “he tends to look away, avoiding eye contact,” she wrote.
