LK Advani backed Pranab Mukherjee as President nominee

Nearly a month before BJP named PA Sangma its Presidential nominee to contest against UPA's Pranab Mukherjee, in June, 2012, LK Advani had favoured Mukherjee as the "unanimous choice" for the post, according to the book penned by Mukherjee.

In the book, The Coalition Years 1996-2015, which was released on Friday, Mukherjee says that on May 27, 2012, renowned journalist and MoS for External Affairs MJ Akbar had apprised him of his informal discussions earlier that day with Advani and former Union minister Jaswant Singh regarding his candidature.

Mukherjee claims that Akbar insisted that both Advani and Singh were supportive of his candidature. "They had told him (Akbar) that if the Congress officially nominated me, they would extend their support, thus making me the unanimous choice," Mukherjee says in the book.

Interestingly, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, a close confidante of Advani, had in the last week of April, 2012, announced that the BJP will not back Mukherjee's candidature as he was an active Congress leader.

Also, the then NDA ally JDU had formally announced support for Mukherjee's candidature in the last week of June that year, but Nitish Kumar had distanced himself from Swaraj's views much earlier.

In the period between April and May, despite Swaraj's categorical remarks, there was intense speculation that Mukherjee could emerge as a consensus candidate.

Mukherjee further says in the book that the conversation between Akbar and BJP leaders was not made public, and he thought it was imprudent to do so as the Congress was yet to take a decision in this regard. It was only on May 29 that Congress President's political secretary, Ahmed Patel, informed him that Sonia Gandhi had "perhaps finalised" his name as UPA's Presidential nominee.

The confusion over the issue remained till June 14, when he was told about the party's decision to nominate him.

In the book, Mukherjee also presents an interesting account of how he went to meet the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, despite being told by the party to not do so, after the Sena leader announced support for his candidature and invited him for an interaction at his residence.

Thackeray later told Mukherjee that he found him "distinctly different from other Congress politicians". "Sonia Gandhi was not enthusiastic about my meeting with Thackeray and had advised me to avoid it, if possible," he says, adding that Sharad Pawar's advice was completely different and he insisted that Mukherjee must meet Thackeray.

He further says that when he returned to Delhi afterwards, Congress leader Girija Vyas informed him that Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel were "upset" about his meeting with Thackeray.

Mukherjee, who held key portfolios in UPA I and UPA II governments, also briefly mentions the "differences" between him and P. Chidambaram, which had escalated in 2011, when they were Finance Minister and Home Minister, respectively.

Noting that Chidambaram entered politics much later than him, Mukherjee recalls that the latter's second Union Budget, presented in 1997-1998, was not the "dream budget" as it was dubbed, though it "did not exactly morph into a nightmare". According to Mukherjee, Chidambaram is intellectually sharp and well-informed, though he sometimes "appears to be arrogant" because of his very strong convictions and "style of presentation".

On the front of economy, he says his differences with Chidambaram might have been due to the "differing perspectives on the economy". In the book, Mukherjee also praises former Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao, saying he provided "stellar leadership" to India at a critical juncture.