New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi was upset with Pranab Mukherjee for meeting with late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, despite being advised by her against doing so before his election as President of India in 2012, the third volume of his autobiography has revealed.
On the campaign trail, Mukherjee was visiting Maharashtra where Thackeray, who had unilaterally extended support to his candidature, had made “elaborate arrangements” for Mukherjee’s visit to Matoshree, the Thackeray residence in Mumbai. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, a coalition partner of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II) , had insisted that Mukherjee meet Thackeray.
Mukherjee, in the third volume of his autobiography, “Coalition Years: 1996-2012”, justifies his meeting with Thackeray and shows how it was aimed at keeping coalition partners like the NCP in good humour with Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee having already abandoned the UPA. He recalls that his visit to Mumbai on July 13, 2012, was significant as Thackeray, whose party was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), had, without being asked to, extended support to Mukherjee’s candidature.
