'Pranab Mukherjee Shocked Me With Change At Top Suggestion': Sonia Gandhi

It is a rumour universally acknowledged that Pranab Mukherjee had prime ministerial ambitions. Sonia Gandhi just put a formal stamp on it.

Citing a conversation from 2010 with the veteran leader, Gandhi says the Congress leader, who went on to become the President, shocked her with the suggestion that perhaps "it was time for a change at the top". Sonia Gandhi made the disclosure in her memoir 'Belonging: A Journey Of Love', which hits the stands today. 

According to Gandhi, there was an "unspoken division of responsibility" between the prime minister and her, one that worked smoothly -- "the government under Dr Manmohan Singh, and the party under me". While pointing out the separation of powers between the party and government, Gandhi also narrates an anecdote of how Pranab Mukherjee once hinted at his desire to be PM.

"A core group met weekly with the prime minister to ensure coordination between the two. Its other members were Pranab Mukheriee, who had been a minister in Indira Gandhi's cabinet in the 70s; the politically insightful Arjun Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh; AK Anthony, a former chief minister of Kerala: and Ahmed Patel.

"We also met regularly as members of the Strategy Group, set up to discuss issues to be taken up in Parliament. Sometimes Pranab ji, as I always called him, would stay back for a chat," she says.

"He (Pranab) had developed serious differences with the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and on one occasion, in 2010, I think after expressing his frustration, he shocked me with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for a change at the top, which I understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become prime minister," Gandhi writes in the 526-page book.

"I gently changed the subject, and though he may have been disappointed, he never made me feel he held it against me," she adds.

Gandhi goes on to point out that the Congress did nominate Mukherjee in 2012 as the UPA candidate for president, the highest office in the republic, and he was elected.

"I often called on him, mostly just to converse with the erudite and knowledgeable politician that he always remained."