Pranab Mukherjee's son ventures into Bengal politics

NEW DELHI: Perhaps it’s his nature, or may be it’s too early, and we should wait and see what political success (assuming that happens) does to him–but the son of arguably the third most important ruling party politician in the country is noticeably un-scion-like.

When ET met Pranab Mukherjee’s son, Abhijit Mukherjee,50, ex-PSU manager and soon-to-be Congress candidate in the Bengal elections, Junior showed no signs of being the political version of the star son.

ET met Mukherjee Jr in one of the smaller rooms in 13 Talkatora Road–the Lutyens Delhi bungalow that’s Pranab Mukherjee’s address. The adjacent room is reserved for the the many visitors Mukherjee Sr receives every day.

One of Abhijit Mukherjee’s first encounters with political life–he quit SAIL only recently–seems to be a deadline-driven rush to complete paperwork. “I have to complete the paperwork for my nomination,” Mukherjee Jr said. “I have to do this by March 31, and am not used to this. In SAIL, you had TDS (tax deducted at source) and certificates come with a lag.”

But why wait so long to join politics? Mukherjee Jr, who started his professional career with Maruti in 1988 before joining Bhel and then moving on to SAIL, doesn’t elaborate beyond saying he hadn’t thought of politics till a few years back. And when he thought of politics, “my childhood memories of my father’s and grandfather’s work for the disadvantaged in Nalhati, Birbhum (a region in western Bengal the Mukherjee family calls home) were the biggest deciding factor,” he said.

This is an answer no seasoned politician can find fault with. He seems more forthcoming when asked how much his father influenced his decision. “It’s my decision. He only told me to remember political life can be uncertain and there’s no looking back once you are in.”

And how will be different from his father in politics? “I will tell you what I would like to do differently”, he says, parsing the question slightly. “I will say ‘no’ when ‘no’ is the right answer. I have been told ‘no’ loses you votes. But I will still say ‘no’ if I think that’s the right answer.”

It’s his father’s ability to be courteous with politicians from rival parties that Mukherjee Jr likes most. He, unsurprisingly, politely refuses to answer any questions on his father’s future prospects, on the twist and turns of Pranab Mukherjee’s long career. He’s reticent on Mamata Banerjee, too. “We (the Congress and Trinamul) will have a strong alliance and it’s time for a change of guard in Bengal”.

But Abhijit Mukherjee is quite candid about general political questions. “MPs or MLAs have become people who are only supposed to use their influence to get things done in their constituencies. What about basic governance? Isn’t that the job of a political representative?”

He will try to do all those things, he says. The result will prove whether “my decision (to quit a job and join politics) was whimsical”. Hasn’t he given up a nice retirement package that would have been his due had he served some more time? Mukherjee Jr smiles. “The only strange thing I feel now is that...9.30 am, weekday, I am not in office. I am jobless.” Abhijit Mukherjee is hoping the voters of Nalhati, Bengal give him a job soon.