Congress veteran and former President of India Pranab Mukherjee’s memoir “The Presidential Years, 2012-2017” which was released on Tuesday raised many eyebrows as he spoke about various topics.
The former President of India has written the book before he breathed his last in the last year. Mukherjee died on 31 August 2020 due to a lung infection at a private hospital.
Taking about the Telangana bifurcation from erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the former President said, if there was a situation of the Congress [party listening to him, he would have not allowed the Telangana formation.
The decision to divide Telangana costed a high price for the Congress party with the party losing its base on both the Telugu states. While the party failed to take the credit of granting a special state in Telangana, the party faced the wrath of the Andhra voters with the decision.
The announcement from the Congress party over the state formation came from the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The bill was passed amid huge drama in Lok Sabha. The live telecast was also cut off in the house.
Referring to Maharashtra, the former President said that Sonia Gandhi relied on the wrong leaders, which resulted in the party facing brutal shock with the decision made.
The veteran Congressman attributed Congress’ loss in the 2014 elections to the wrong decisions made by Sonia Gandhi and lack of leader face ion the party. The party barely managed to win 44 seats.
