When PM Modi Met Pranab Mukherjee After 2014 Win, The Former President Had Just One Question
When PM Modi Met Pranab Mukherjee After 2014 Win, The President Had Just One Question Published By, Last Updated: June 27, 2026, 09:45 IST Sharmistha
When PM Modi Met Pranab Mukherjee After 2014 Win, The President Had Just One Question Published By, Last Updated: June 27, 2026, 09:45 IST Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the late former President Pranab Mukherjee, shared an intriguing anecdote as she recalled a conversation between PM Narendra Modi and her father Prime Minister Narendra Modi and late former President Pranab Mukherjee | File photo credit: PTI “You may love or hate Modi, but you simply cannot ignore ‘Brand Modi’“. Taking a trip down memory lane, Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the late former President Pranab Mukherjee, shared an intriguing anecdote as she recalled a conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her father. Mukherjee, who authored ‘Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers’, wrote in The Indian Express: “After the election results (2014 Lok Sabha) were out, Modiji came to meet Baba at Rashtrapati Bhavan. During the course of the conversation, Baba asked him about his analysis of the election." She said PM Modi had mentioned to him that after three decades, a political party had bagged an absolute majority.
“Baba, then, in his typical professorial style, asked, ‘what else?’ When Modiji kept quiet, Baba pointed out that 2014 was unique in the history of Lok Sabha elections, as it featured a declared new face as the prime ministerial candidate", Sharmistha Mukherjee writes. She noted that her father –– then the 13th President of India –– enjoyed a great rapport of PM Modi despite political differences, which she described as the “hallmark of a true democracy." Mukherjee opined that the massive mandate given to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not merely belong to the party, but it was a “direct mandate" for Narendra Modi –– who was the party’s Prime Ministerial face in the Lok Sabha elections. “Unlike other elections, where the PM face is either assumed but not officially declared, or it is chosen by the newly elected MPs as per convention, or decided by coalition arithmetic, the process is done after the election", she argued. ‘Modi Was New To Politics’ Sharmistha Mukherjee noted that PM Modi was new to national politics.
Prior to 2014, he served a long tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, during which, she said he had “built his aura and made his mark". She also recalled the moment when PM Modi bowed down on the steps of the Parliament upon arriving at the complex for the very first time post the 2014 victory. “It is unprecedented that a first-time MP entered the Parliament House as the Prime Minister of India. His emotional act of doing pranam on the steps of the (old) Parliament building was an understandably emotional gesture that touched the hearts of millions of Indians", Mukherjee wrote in The Indian Express. She argued that the BJP’s victory stemmed from the party’s grassroot connections, strategic outreach to different caste and community groups, as well as what she described as a “quick recognition of mistakes", and “willingness to do immediate course corrections". “However, there is no denying the fact that the face of Modi is perhaps the strongest trump card that the BJP has", she wrote. “Modi is not only the longest continuously serving elected Prime Minister of India, he is, perhaps, one of the strongest ones the country has seen since Independence", Mukherjee added.
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