Pranab thought he could be PM in ’12 ‘Mukherjee had every reason to believe he was more qualified’
TELL ALL Meeting with Sonia in June made former Prez feel Manmohan could be replaced
NEW DELHI: Was Congress president Sonia Gandhi considering a replacement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012, about two years before the elections?
Then Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee says after a meeting with Gandhi on June 1 that year, he returned with a “vague impression that she might wish” to consider Manmohan as the UPA’S presidential nominee. In the third volume of his autobiography, The Coalition Years — 1996-2012, Mukherjee writes that Gandhi had a “frank” discussion with him on a range of issues, including the functioning of the government and the Prime Minister’s Office, ways to improve UPA’S image, the apparent distance between Congress and the government and the lack of proactiveness within the ruling coalition.
“I thought that if she selected Singh for the presidential office, she may choose me as the prime minister. I had heard a rumour that she had given this formulation a serious thought while on a holiday in the Kaushambi Hills,” Mukherjee says in his autography that was released on Friday.
At that time the UPA government was facing severe criticism for what political adversaries and a section of political commentators called a “policy paralysis” leading to economic downslide. The UPA’S image had also taken a battering following a string of corruption scandals.
Mukherjee, in his autobiography, has made no bones about his prime ministerial ambitions. In 2004, after Gandhi had declined the prime minister’s post, he notes in his memoir, the prevalent expectation was that he would be the next choice for PM.
Referring to media reports at the time about his unwillingness to work under Manmohan Singh — his junior when he was the finance minister — Mukherjee writes, “The fact was that I was reluctant to join the government and informed Sonia Gandhi accordingly.
“She, however, insisted that I should join the government since I would be vital to its functioning….”
When the government was being formed, he was “absolutely clear” that he didn’t want the finance portfolio “since Manmohan Singh and I held different views on economic issues”.
In the run up to the 2007 presidential election, when Mukherjee’s name started doing the rounds, Gandhi called him to say that it was difficult for her to spare him as he was a strong pillar in the government and in Parliament. She was reluctant five years later, too. “Pranabji, you are most eminently suited for the office, but you should not forget the crucial role you are playing in the functioning of the government.”
Gandhi, however, changed her mind later after Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav addressed a press conference to declare their presidential nominees—apj Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee.
A day after their press conference, Gandhi decided to nominate Mukherjee who enjoyed good personal equations with leaders across party lines. And he proved it again as both Banerjee and Yadav relented later. NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said that his former colleague Pranab Mukherjee, who was part of the UPA cabinet, had every reason to have a grievance that he was better qualified than him to become the PM, but he also knew that “I had no choice in the matter.”
Singh said this at the launch of former President Pranab Mukherjee’s latest volume in the autobiographical series, The Coalition Years — 1996-2012.
The book was released in the presence of representatives of the parties who formed the coalition government headed by Manmohan Singh i n 2004, including CPI(M) and Samajwadi Party. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul were among the attendees. “He (Mukherjee) had every reason to believe he would be the PM. That did not happen but it did not affect our relationship… that relationship of deep and abiding friendship will last and last as long as we are living,” Singh said. The former PM said that contrary to what people may say or write, the UPA government ran very “smoothly”. “There was no tension and as a mark of respect and trust for Pranab ji, I turned to him whenever a difficult matter was to be discussed in the cabinet,” he said.
CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that once again the “paradigm of coalition” is coming back in Indian politics. Yechury’s party was part of the UPA-I coalition but withdrew support on the issue of Indo-us nuclear deal.
“India itself is a grand coalition and you cannot have a political monolithic structure which is social pluralistic structure in our society. This cannot gel. The social plurality, the cultural plurality, the diversity has to reflect in polity and more often than not it would reflect itself in the coalition government,” Yechury said.
MUKHERJEE, IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, HAS MADE NO BONES ABOUT HIS PRIME MINISTERIAL AMBITIONS