Politics

Dynasty Or Merit? Sharmistha Mukherjee Questions Sonia Gandhi’s “Shock”

Gandhi writes that Mukherjee never held it against her, and his daughter confirms he was pragmatic and understood her reasons

PGurus Newsdesk

November 10, 2026

“Is Ambition A Crime?” Pranab Mukherjee’s Daughter Hits Back At Sonia

“Nobody Served Him PM-Ship On A Platter”: Pranab’s Daughter Responds To Sonia

Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the late former President Pranab Mukherjee, has asked what was wrong with her father’s ambition to become Prime Minister, after Sonia Gandhi’s memoir said his suggestion of a “change at the top” had shocked her.

Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, released worldwide on Tuesday, recalls a 2010 conversation with Mukherjee. She writes that he shocked her by suggesting it might be time for a change at the top, which she understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become Prime Minister.

Sharmistha Mukherjee questioned the reaction. She asked what there was to be shocked about, and whether ambition was a crime, particularly when it was backed by decades of experience in politics and governance, hard work and a brilliant mind.

She said she had once asked her father directly about the ambition, and that he had answered candidly that any politician worth his salt has it.

Mukherjee stressed that her father rose from humble beginnings through sheer merit and hard work. No one handed him positions, including the prime ministership, on a platter through dynastic entitlement, she said. She then asked whether the shock was caused by the idea that anyone outside the Gandhi-Nehru family could dare to nurture such an ambition, and to hint it to Gandhi.

Gandhi writes that after Mukherjee raised the matter, she gently changed the subject. He may have been disappointed, she adds, but he never made her feel he held it against her.

What’s there to get ‘shocked’ about? https://t.co/G176imSSfy
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) November 10, 2026

Mukherjee confirmed that assessment, saying that from his diaries and her own conversations with him, he did not hold it against Gandhi or anyone else. He was a pragmatic person with deep understanding, she said, and understood Gandhi’s reasons and the insecurities to which all human beings are prone.

The 79-year-old former Congress president also points out in the memoir that the party nominated Pranab Mukherjee as the UPA candidate for President in 2012, and that he was elected. She writes that she often called on him, mostly to converse with the erudite and knowledgeable politician he always remained.

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