Pranab Mukherjee's daughter quashes rumours of joining BJP

New Delhi: The controversy over former President Pranab Mukherjee’s scheduled address at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s convocation deepened on Wednesday when his daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee took to Twitter to warn her father that by going to Nagpur he was allowing the BJP/RSS to plant “false stories”.

Her tweets came after political circles in the Capital were abuzz with the rumour that she would fight the next Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate in West Bengal. Some news site carried this story, quoting sources in the BJP saying that the former President was keen that his daughter fights elections from Malda on a BJP ticket.

The first clarification came from the former President’s office, which dismissed the rumours. Sources said that Mr Mukherjee had had no political discussions with the RSS or the BJP.

Soon, Ms Mukherjee, who is out of the city on vacation, tweeted that there was no truth to the rumours.

She first tweeted saying , “In the mountains enjoying a beautiful sunset, and suddenly this news that I’m supposedly joining BJP hits like a torpedo! Can’t there be some peace and sanity in this world? I joined politics because I believe in @INCIndia would rather leave politics than leave Congress”.

In more direct tweets later, Ms Mukherjee said, “Hope @CitiznMukherjee now realises from todays’ incident how BJP dirty tricks dept operates. Even RSS wouldn’t believe that you are going to endorse its views in your speech. But the speech will be forgotten, visuals will remain and those will be circulated with fake statements... By going to Nagpur, you are giving BJP/RSS full handle to plant false stories, spread falls rumours as today and making it somewhat believable.  And this is just the beginning!” @CitiznMukherjee is Mr Mukhrjee’s Twitter handle. Ajay Maken, Delhi Congress chief, also rubbished the rumours.  

“She told me, that she is in politics just because of her firm faith in the ideology of the Congress Party,” he tweeted.

Mr Mukherjee’s decision to address the RSS session in Nagpur is being seen by many as an effort to increase his political relevance ahead of the 2019 general elections.

While the Congress top leadership has been silent, many leaders like Jairam Ramesh and Ramesh Chennithala have come out in the open asking him to reconsider his decision.

But the former President has maintained a stoic silence and was quoted by a media report as saying that he would say whatever he has to say in Nagpur.

The RSS has invited the former President to be the chief guest at the concluding function of "Tritiya Varsh Varg" or third-year course and address the swayamsevaks on Thursday, 7 June.