Sonia was miffed at Indira for favouring Priyanka, says former PM's aide

There is another addition to the list of tell-all books which have made revelations that left the Congress uncomfortable. The latest is a book by a close associate of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ML Fotedar, in which he has said that Sonia Gandhi was unhappy when she learned that Priyanka Gandhi could become her political successor, as per a report by The Times of India. [caption id=“attachment_2475638” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Indira Gandhi. Image courtesy: Getty images[/caption] While Fotedar was reported to have said that Indira ‘saw herself in Priyanka’, he regretted that Indira’s suggestion about Priyanka assuming a leadership role did not go down well with Sonia, Zee News reported. Further, Fotedar has claimed that family pressure was the reason for Sonia declining the prime minister’s post after the 2004 General Election, according to a report in Tehelka_._ He is also said to have spoken about PV Narasimha Rao becoming prime minister and the Babri Masjid demolition in the book. This is by no means the first time a book is being released making revelations about Congress leaders. Perhaps the most significant of these was the book '_The Accidental Prime Minister_' written by Manmohan Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru. In the book, Baru had claimed that Singh took the rap for bad decisions taken by Sonia to avoid giving the impression that there were two power centres in the government. However, the Prime Minister’s Office termed the book as ‘fiction’ and ‘coloured’. The book came at a particularly bad time for the UPA government — right before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Natwar Singh, in his book, '_One life is not enough: An autobiography_' is said to have termed Sonia as ‘Machiavellian’ and that her achievement is the reduction of the party to a ‘rump’ of 44 members in the Lok Sabha. Singh is also said to have claimed that Sonia Gandhi declined the post of Prime Minister at the insistence of her son Rahul Gandhi, who expressed a fear that she, too, would be killed like his father and grandmother. Another book that took a swipe at the Congress was former coal secretary PC Parakh’s book '_Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other truths_' . Parakh was reported to have said that Manmohan Singh was a prime minister with little political authority, adding further that his image was ‘seriously dented’ by the 2G scam and the coal scam, although he had a ‘spotless record’ of personal integrity’.