Dina Banerjee

BHOPAL: The former MP has revealed that her father had a long relationship with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and she often came on family visits with her mother. She alleges that the Gandhis had ‘encouraged’ her father into voting for their daughter Maneka Gandhi and not for her rival, Sonia, in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.On her views on the ongoing row between Sonia Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, Dina said, “Every time Maneka talks about her own mother, the Gandhis should have their own mother in that space also. But, they are not talking about their own mother.”She added: “It’s always Sonia-Maneka time. She has always called her daughter Mani.”She also dismissed the Gandhis’ complaint about her father and said that the government has tried to ensure that his views are heard in Parliament. “He was not a member of the committee. Every time a committee wants to hear him, he was not present there. He was not involved in any other thing.”Dina, who won the Uttar Pradesh polls from Amethi in 1993, also alleged that she had asked the then president for her membership card in 1991. “But I got this card from the office of then Home Minister Harsh Vardhan. I was so angry because there were such things that were said against my father in 1987.”She said she never joined the Congress, and felt that if her dad did not vote for her, then she could work with the BJP.”My father is not an extremist. He is not against other parties but he is against them being elected. All parties have to have someone like him in those places,” she said at the event organised to commemorate the 100 th birth anniversary of her father Ramesh.Dina’s story about her father and alleged pressure from the Gandhis is not new. In 1993, Sonia Gandhi tried to get Dina to change her views on India’s relationship with the US, and also told her father to vote for her, but he refused. The mother then joined the National Conference, and both went their separate ways.