CALCUTTA, 10 May 2004 — Pranab Mukherjee is the dark horse in the race for prime minister if the Congress party has the requisite number of MPs to form a non-BJP national government with the support of secular parties after May 13, analysts say.
Mukherjee’s name is being bandied around with Manmohan Singh’s and Arjun Singh’s as a possible Congress prime minister with Sonia Gandhi’s blessings.
Mukherjee is known to be close to Sonia. He is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal’s Jangipur constituency on Sonia’s specific instructions to become an elected MP.
He also enjoys the support of Sharad Pawar who insists that Sonia should not become prime minister in the larger interests of Congress
The Maharashtra heavyweight insists that if a senior Congress leader becomes the prime minister instead of Sonia, many old Congress workers will return to the party’s fold and the party can govern India as it did for so many decades until it was cast aside by the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
It is being argued that because of his secular credentials as a staunch Congress worker, the Left parties too should have no qualms about supporting a national government headed by Mukherjee.
Whether he becomes the prime minister or not, he has a reasonable chance of becoming a Lok Sabha member for the first time in his long political career spanning three-and-a-half decades defeating his Marxist challenger Abul Hasnat Khan.
The Jangipur seat in Murshidabad district is considered a safe bet for Congress in Left Front-ruled West Bengal.
The soft-spoken 69-year-old Mukherjee has held virtually all important government positions — with the sole exception of the top job — without ever contesting or winning a Lok Sabha election.
Mukherjee grew from strength to strength as long as Indira Gandhi was alive. After her death, Rajiv Gandhi relegated him to the sidelines. For reasons which are still shrouded in mystery, Rajiv Gandhi dropped Mukherjee like a hot potato. Let alone induct him into the Cabinet, he even kept him out of the Rajya Sabha.
