Pranab Mukherjee was favoured to be the prime minister by late President R Venkataraman after the fall of the VP Singh government in 1990, but Rajiv Gandhi thought otherwise.
The fact has come to light in a book entitled, “The Chinar Leaves”, by veteran Congress leader and a close aide to the Gandhi family, ML Fotedar.
Fotedar claims that when he met Venkataraman to discuss the political situation in the wake of Singh’s resignation in 1990, the president told him emphatically that Rajiv should support Mukherjee.
I requested him (President Venkataraman) to invite Rajivji to head the next government as he was the leader of the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. On this the President directed me, with an emphasis of authority, that I may put it to Rajiv Gandhi that if he supported Mr Pranab Mukherjee to be Prime Minister, he (the President ) would administer the oath of office to him that same evening.
Fotedar, in The Chinar Leaves
Chandra ‘Jumped at the Opportunity’
The HarperCollins publication, due for release soon, also highlights how Mukherjee along with PV Narasimha Rao and Venkataraman were considered by Indira Gandhi to succeed her at the helm of the Congress party, until of course she decided to bring her son Rajiv into politics as her heir.
Fotedar, currently a member of the Congress Working Committee, writes that Venkatraman’s personal choice for the prime minister’s position left him surprised, with him taking time to recover his poise to ask the president, “Sir, how can that be done?”. Hearing this, Venkatraman said again with an aura of authority that Fotedar should inform Rajiv about his choice.
I came back and reported the developments to Rajivji, who was also astounded by R.V.’s stand. The Congress party was running out of options and Rajivji ultimately took the controversial decision of supporting Chandra Shekhar from outside.
Fotedar, in The Chinar Leaves
He adds that Chandra Shekhar, the former ‘Young Turk’ who had waited in the wings to become the country’s prime minister for nearly a decade, “jumped at the opportunity and took over the reins of power”.
‘Pranab Made Presidential Candidate to Avoid Tricky Situation’
The book also highlights how Mukherjee was made the presidential candidate of the Congress by consensus to avoid a tricky and embarrassing situation for the party amid talks of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name cropping up thanks to Mamata Banerjee suggestion.
Talking about Sonia Gandhi naming Manmohan as the party’s prime ministerial candidate after the Vajpayee government fell, Fotedar says, “many within the party got to know that Soniaji’s first preference was Dr Singh. This irked some of the ambitious leaders and Madhav Rao Scindia, who had prime ministerial ambitions, used his friend Amar Singh to make Mulayam Singh Yadav change his mind about supporting the Congress-led coalition government.”
Fotedar adds, “Soniaji, who was not in electoral politics at that point, met the President and claimed that her party had the support of 272 Lok Sabha members. An interesting incident took place just before her meeting with the President.”
The original letter which Soniaji had sought to present to the President had indicated that Dr Manmohan Singh would be the prime ministerial candidate of the party. However, I advised her to delete Dr Singh’s name and instead insist on getting the invite for the party to lead the coalition government. Soniaji appreciated the logic and did the needful.
Fotedar, in The Chinar Leaves
On Manmohan, the Sikh Congress man picked for PM’s post, Fotedar says the choice reflected Sonia’s “astute political mind” since he had no political base and could never become a threat to her leadership. He also belonged to the Sikh community which had been extremely hostile to the Gandhi family because of Operation Blue Star and the riots that followed Indira’s assassination.
“It was Soniaji’s way of extending the olive branch for the sake of the security of her children,” he said.
Fotedar was Indira’s political secretary, rising through the ranks to become a union minister.
(With PTI inputs.)
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