Pranab Mukherjee won't enter active politics again, says daughter

Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha on Sunday said that the former President is not going to enter active politics again, hours after Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut speculated that the RSS could project Mukherjee as PM candidate for 2019 elections in case the BJP fails to get the required numbers.

"Mr Raut, after retiring as President of India, my father is NOT going to enter into active politics again," Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee tweeted in response to Raut's conjecture.

Shiv Sena today said the RSS could pitch Mukherjee as a prime ministerial candidate for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, days after the former President addressed an RSS function at its headquarters in Nagpur, Times of India reports.

"We feel RSS is preparing itself for a situation where it might put forth Pranab Mukherjee's name as Prime Minister candidate if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fails to get required numbers," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told news agency ANI.

"In any case, BJP will lose a minimum of 110 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Raut claimed.

Raut's comments came a day after Sena, in its mouthpiece 'Saamna', said that the RSS may be preparing the ground to prop up Pranab as a consensus candidate in case majority alludes Narendra Modi in 2019.

There is talk in Delhi about such an agenda being behind the invitation to the Congress veteran to deliver a speech at an RSS event in Nagpur, said an edit in Saamna. “Mukherjee only said things like love your country, respect diversity and live in harmony, and the RSS applauded his speech,” the Saamna edit added.

The former President's decision to address the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) "Shiksha Varg" and attend the organisation's drill on June 7 did not go down well with the Congress leaders initially, though the party, later, lauded Mukherjee's speech.

The former finance minister in the UPA II government, Pranab Mukherjee was appointed as the 13th President of India in 2012. He retired in 2017.