JOIN USUPA's presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee is expected to have a smooth entry to Rashtrapati Bhavan by polling twice the number of votes likely to be secured by his opponent P A Sangma.
However, the nomination of the 77-year-old leader for the election to the country’s highest constitutional post, for which he was keen even in 2007, has not been a smooth affair this time as well. Besides, key UPA ally and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who opposed Mukherjee’s candidature, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was reluctant to endorse him as the Presidential choice.
Officially, the Congress maintained that the nomination of Mukherjee, known as troubleshooter of the UPA, was a tough decision because of his unquestioned utility to the party and the government.
Minutes after Mukherjee filed his nomination as UPA's Presidential nominee on June 28, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said, “Pranabji has been a pillar in the party and the government. His absence will always be felt by the party but the country comes before the party and Mukherjee is going to serve the country as President”.
However, despite being ruling coalition’s indispensable crisis manager, Mukherjee wasn’t the instinctive first choice of the Congress for President’s post, because Sonia Gandhi suspects his loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family. Mukherjee incurred the distrust of the Gandhi family after he tried to throw his hat in the prime ministerial race after the assassination of his political mentor Indira Gandhi in 1984.
He was sidelined by Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his mother as the prime minister.
Dejected over not being given a place in the Cabinet by Rajiv Gandhi, Mukherjee left the Congress in 1986 and formed the Rashtriya Samajwadi Party, which contested the 1987 assembly polls in Bengal but didn’t win a single seat. After being in political wilderness for more than two years, Mukherjee returned to the Congress fold just before 1989 Lok Sabha elections. However, developments of the time were to haunt him for long time.
Mukherjee, who has been a prominent member in Congress governments, never got the top job when Sonia declined to be the Prime Minister in 2004. He was overlooked by Sonia in favour of Manmohan Singh. In 2006, Mukherjee, who was chairing most of the empowered group of ministers and cabinet committees tasked with making recommendations on important issues, made a feeble attempt to get elevated as deputy PM. But, Sonia said at the Congress brainstorming session in Nainital that there was no proposal to have a deputy PM.
In 2007, Mukherjee had expressed his desire to be UPA’s Presidential nominee, but his candidature was ignored in favour of Pratibha Patil. In this election, Mukherjee’s name was doing the rounds for almost two months. Sonia Gandhi was considering the candidature of incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari as one of her choice.
According to informed sources, Mukherjee was annoyed that he was not Congress’ only preferred choice for the July 19 elections after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee disclosed to media two choicess of the Congress after her meeting with Sonia.
Coupled with this, opposition to his candidature from Banerjee “infuriated” Mukherjee, who threatened to resign from the Cabinet, saying this was huge embarrassment to him. Knowing sensitivity of the situation and Mukherjee’s clout across the political spectrum, Ahmed Patel, Sonia’s political secretary, played a major role in mollifying him.
After a series of meetings with Congress leaders and coalition partners on June 15 Sonia announced Mukherjee's name as the UPA’s candidate for Presidential polls at a meeting alliance partners. Hence Pranabda, as he is popularly known in political circles got it this time.
In contrast, Sangma, who was a former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Chief Minister of Meghalaya, campaigned himself to be a candidate for the post. As he did not get right signals from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he co-founded with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, he approached the AIADMK and the BJD, which agreed to support the candidature of the tribal leader from Meghalaya.
The Congress would not have supported his candidature for his strident stand against Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin.
The eight-time MP, who kept on insisting he would run for the presidential post, resigned from the NCP. Later, the petite leader was adopted by the BJP as its first choice Abdul Kalam declined to contest.
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