Pranab Mukherjee hinted at desire to become PM, ‘shocked’ me, writes Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee. File

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.

The book, published by HarperCollins, was made available in bookstores on Tuesday (November 10, 2026), but the official launch is likely to take place on November 16.

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.

“I gently changed the subject, and though he may have been disappointed, he never made me feel he held it against me,” she added.

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. 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”.

Hitting back at Ms. Gandhi, Sharmistha Mukherjee, the late President’s daughter, said it was not a crime to be ambitious.

“What’s there to be shocked about?” she asked in a post on X in response to Ms. Gandhi’s remarks.

“Is it a crime to be ambitious, especially when that ‘ambition’ was supported by decades of experience in politics and governance, hard work and a brilliant mind? Once, when asked by me whether he wanted to become PM, he very candidly answered that ‘any politician worth his salt has this ambition’,” she wrote.

The memoir gives a first-hand account of the personal as well as political journey of one of India’s most “reticent politicians”.

On her relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ms. 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.

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The memoir also recounted her strained relationship with Maneka Gandhi, describing how domestic differences following her marriage to Sanjay Gandhi gradually spilled into politics. She recalled Indira Gandhi’s displeasure with Ms. Maneka’s political activities, particularly after the Emergency, and the eventual break in ties, with the younger daughter-in-law walking out of the family home.

books and literature / Indian National Congress