Pranab wanted to become PM felt he was senior enough for top post Prithviraj Chavan

Mumbai, Nov 11 (PTI) Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said late party veteran Pranab Mukherjee was interested in becoming the prime minister of the country as he felt he was senior enough for the top post.

Mukherjee, who served as India's president from 2012 to 2017, was a senior Congress leader and held several key ministerial portfolios at the Centre, including finance, external affairs and defence, during his political career.

Talking to PTI, Chavan said he was not aware whether Mukherjee had conveyed his desire to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but maintained that the veteran leader was interested in the top post as he felt he was senior enough.

In her memoir "Belonging: A Journey of Love", Sonia Gandhi has said Mukherjee shocked her by suggesting that it was time for a change at the top, which she understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become PM.

Reacting to Gandhi's remarks in her memoir, Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha has said that perhaps Sonia Gandhi was "shocked" as she thought that anyone outside Gandhi-Nehru family could not even dare to nurture such an ambition.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)