Congress banks on President's daughter to win Delhi's GK seat

NEW DELHI: Just weeks from her political debut, Sharmistha Mukherjee, 49, betrays no stage fright. Congress’ pick for the difficult Greater Kailash assembly constituency—the party hasn’t won it since it was carved out in 2008—is an acclaimed Kathak dancer who minces neither steps nor words. And though she is the President’s daughter, she makes it clear that she’s her own person and comes without baggage.
“Not the President, it is Pranab Mukherjee the man with whom people and party workers associate me as he has an impeccable, unblemished political career of over four decades. Of course, this means that there are very high expectations of me,” she says, adding in a lighter vein: “More than anyone else, if I lose my father will bash me up”.
For Sharmistha, GK is more than a constituency. It’s been her home since 1986. She still lives in her father’s “first Delhi flat”, a two-bedroom unit whose sole luxury and ornament is a wall lined with shelves full of the works of Tagore, Rushdie, D H Lawrence, Wilde, Orhan Pamuk and many others. Much-travelled and well-read, does she see her polished persona and privileged background as obstacles in Delhi’s new abrasive politics?
She says she’s very much a grounded person, a Delhiite who studied history at Stephen’s and did her post-graduation in sociology from JNU. She’s been doing her groundwork in GK for the past two months but admits there’s still a lot to learn.

President Pranab Mukherjee. (TOI Photo by K Sunil Prasad)
Sharmistha says she realized the importance of authority after she started working for people on her father’s advice. “He told me, go out and meet people and listen to what they have to say. People came up to me for getting work done for their localities and I have always been averse to using my father’s name and office for anyone, including myself. This is when I realized that authority is important, and I made up my mind to plunge into electoral politics.”
Why contest at a time when Congress is passing through its lowest phase? “I had been thinking of joining politics for about a year but took a final decision after the Lok Sabha results. When I decided to come into politics a lot of people said it is a bad time, but I say bad time is good time for people who want to come forward and work for the party.”
Then she adds it’s not such a bad time for Congress after all. “When I started out, I felt the GK contest was three-cornered with BJP, AAP and Congress. Now, I can say there are just two parties in the contest here, BJP and Congress.”
Her interactions with NGOs, RWAs and party workers are done in the spirit of classical dance’s “sawaal-jawaab” sessions. She says AAP’s grip has loosened on the constituents of GK and Congress is reclaiming ground. As for the ‘Modi wave’, she’s not in denial but says it has weakened. She hopes to make Congress the “fresh alternative” in GK, a space filled by AAP last time.
For a politician, Sharmistha is refreshingly practical rather than populist. She has lined up “deliverable promises” on issues like parking, traffic congestion and women’s safety.
What’s she prepared to lose in the bargain? “So far I have guarded my privacy very fiercely, but now I am ready for the challenge of electoral politics,” she says.