The other PM

Despite its ups and downs, Pranab Mukherjee's political career has been a steady accumulation of top-heavy portfolios

Pranay Sharma Delhi

Despite its negative connotation in western numerology, 13 has proved to be a lucky number for Pranab Mukherjee. It is the number of his official bungalow in Talkatora Road and that of his office in Parliament. July 13 also happens to be the date when he got married. Like many politicians, Pranab Mukherjee too, believes in numbers. Some years ago, his official residence was at  12 Willingdon Crescent, a bungalow where his mentor, Indira Gandhi, had once stayed and succeeded in staging a comeback after she was thrown out of power in 1977. That, however, did not prevent Mukherjee from getting expelled from the Congress while he was its occupant. After nearly 10 years in Talkatora Road, he refuses to move, although, he is now entitled to a much bigger bungalow.

Like most successful men, Mukherjee has had his fair share of luck. This, coupled with his political shrewdness and ability to launch effective intrigues within a party prone to machinations, has helped him remain in public life for over 40 years. His big break came in 1973 when he was inducted in the union cabinet as a deputy minister in the department of industrial development.

Some say he had gone for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan as a spectator. Since the number of ministers to be taken in the cabinet was found to be inauspicious, he was included to make the number of those being sworn in auspicious. Others stress on his debating skills in the Rajya Sabha on issues close to Indira Gandhi's heart that forced her to take notice of him. Yet, there are others who argue that it was Siddhartha Sankar Ray who played a role in getting him in the union cabinet as a deputy minister along with two others, to counter-balance the growing clout of DP Chattopadhyaya, who was being brought in as the sole nominee from West Bengal in the union government. Whichever version is true, it was the first break to launch Pranab Mukherjee into the national political scene.

He comes from a modest background. His father, Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee, was a Congress leader and a freedom fighter from Bengal's Birbhum district. Mukherjee was born in 1935 in Mirati village, near Kirnahar town of Birbhum. After graduating from the local Vidyasagar College in Suri, he got master's degrees in both history and political science from Calcutta University. He also has a law degree from the same university.

His political career was launched in the mid-1960s when he came under the patronage of the veteran Congress leader from West Bengal, Ajoy Mukherjee, who had then launched his regional outfit, the Bangla Congress. Mukherjee became a willing and active member in it. In 1969, when the Bangla Congress-led United Front coalition, in which the communists were a major partner, came to power for the second time, Mukherjee got a nomination for the Rajya Sabha. Within a few years, however, the Bangla Congress merged with the Congress and Mukherjee became a member of the Congress party.

His rise in the Congress had been steady, and at times, even phenomenal. With the backing of Indira Gandhi and later her son, Sanjay, Mukherjee worked his way through almost all important ministries, initially as a junior minister and subsequently as the cabinet minister. Barring the prime minister and the home minister's portfolio, Mukherjee has headed almost all key ministries in the government.

But despite the backing of the party high command, he has had little luck in winning an election when there has been a direct contest. He lost to Priya Ranjan Das Munshi in 1977 when there was a contest for getting into the Congress Working Committee (CWC). He lost yet again in 1992 when under PV Narasimha Rao's leadership the entry into CWC was open to a contest at the party's national session in Tirupati. He had to wait till the 2004 elections to get elected to Parliament, for the first time in a direct contest, from the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal.

However, his seniority in the Congress and dearth of experienced leaders in the party led to Congress president Sonia Gandhi making him leader of the house in the Lok Sabha. Being a first-time member of the Lok Sabha, this is a distinction Mukherjee shares with Jawaharlal Nehru, who too became the leader of the lower house of Parliament on his debut as a parliamentarian. The decision to put him at par with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament — who is the leader of the house in the Rajya Sabha — had often led to speculations within and outside the party about Mukherjee's status of being the undisputed 'number two' in the government. Such speculation refuses to go away since he either heads, or is a member, of all important committees that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has set up since coming to power three years back.

Over the years, Mukherjee has also made powerful enemies within the party. Every time his name comes into prominence, his detractors in the Congress work over-time to draw the scare scenario before 10 Janpath — Sonia Gandhi's official residence, that has come to symbolise the highest decision-making body in the ruling party — about his machinations to upstage the Gandhis. Such attempts are not met without success. Earlier this year when there were renewed rumours of Mukherjee becoming a 'deputy prime minister', Sonia Gandhi told a crowded press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Himachal Pradesh that there was no need for a 'deputy' to the prime minister.

When his name came up for the country's president, he found little support from his party. Despite strong backing from the Left parties, many in the Congress did not think of him as the right choice, especially as some of them held him responsible for scuttling Shivraj Patil's chances of becoming the first citizen of the country.

But Mukherjee has been a survivor with the uncanny ability to bounce back. Though expelled from the Congress by Rajiv Gandhi in 1986, he has managed to become a key figure, if not the key figure, in a government where Sonia Gandhi has the last word. He had also worked with Narasimha Rao and though initially he was kept out of his cabinet, he later succeeded in becoming not only the deputy chairman of the planning commission but also got the portfolios of commerce and external affairs.

Though he is considered to be a shrewd politician, he also has a human side that brings to the fore his sense of loyalty and fellow feeling. At a time when Narasimha Rao was a persona non grata and was on the verge of being taken into custody in the wake of criminal charges brought against him, it was Mukherjee and his wife Shubhra who went to Rao's residence to grant him bail at the dead of night. Unlike many other politicians, he also tries to deliver on his promises. Some years back, when a Bengali journalist died in a road accident, Mukherjee took the initiative of not only looking after his family, but also ensured that his wife got a job. He started the process by writing the application letter himself.

Mukherjee may be a Bengali to the core, but does not have a penchant for music, theatre or films like many others from Bengal. He is fond of reading, but his knowledge of music does not go much beyond Rabindra Sangeet. He once famously remarked when someone suggested that Madhuri Dixit be given a party ticket from Bengal: "Which block Congress does she belong to?" Films don't interest him either and the last one he saw was Rang De Basanti, that too because as the defence minister he had to decide whether it merits to be screened for the public after its scathing attack on rampant corruption in the defence ministry.

An astrologer had once predicted that Mukherjee will assume the highest office in the country when he is 60. He is now 72-years-old. But he has not lost heart and fondly jokes, "I am the permanent PM," playing on the initials of his name. Aware that such a remark, even when said jokingly, could be misconstrued in the Congress, he is quick to point out that he has borrowed the joke from Piloo Modi who used to remind Indira Gandhi that while she was only a temporary prime minister, he is the permanent 'PM'. Indeed, it may still remain a banter, but some people, meanwhile, have started seeing Pranab Mukherjee as the next prime minister of India.