Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, said that whether you love or hate PM Modi, you cannot ignore Brand Modi. During the promotion of his book Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers, he shared an interesting anecdote. He told that after the results of 2014 Lok Sabha elections were announced, Prime Minister Modi came to meet Baba at Rashtrapati Bhavan. During the conversation, Baba asked him about his analysis about the elections. He told that PM Modi had told him that after three decades no political party has got absolute majority.
Sharmistha Mukherjee told that, then Baba asked in his special professorial style, what else? When Modi ji remained silent, Baba told that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were unique in history because a new face was declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate.
Despite political differences, we had very good relations
Sharmistha told that her father was the 13th President of India at that time. He had a very good relationship with Prime Minister Modi despite political differences, which he described as “the hallmark of true democracy”. Mukherjee believed that the huge mandate received by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not just the party’s, but it was a “direct mandate” for Narendra Modi, who was the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.
He said, “Unlike other elections, where the face for the post of Prime Minister is either assumed but not officially announced, or is chosen by newly elected MPs as per tradition, or is decided by the mathematics of alliances, that is, this process happens after the elections…”
‘PM Modi bowed and saluted on the steps of Parliament’
Sharmistha Mukherjee told that PM Modi was new in national politics. Before 2014, he had served a long tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He said that during this time he “created a special identity for himself and established his influence”. He also remembered the moment when PM Modi bowed down on the steps of Parliament when he reached the Parliament complex for the first time after the 2014 victory.
According to President Mukherjee, “It was an unprecedented event that a first-time parliamentarian entered the Parliament House as the Prime Minister of India. His emotional gesture of paying obeisance on the steps of the (old) Parliament House was an emotional gesture that won the hearts of millions of Indians.” He said the BJP’s victory was possible because of the party’s grassroots connect, strategic outreach to different castes and communities and what he called “quick recognition of mistakes” and “willingness to make quick corrections”.
He wrote, “However, it cannot be denied that Modi’s face is perhaps the BJP’s strongest trump card.”
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