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.