Sharmistha Mukherjee Wiki, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Sharmistha Mukherjee is an Indian Kathak dancer and choreographer-turned-politician. She is the daughter of Pranab Mukherjee and a member of the Indian National Congress.

Wiki/Biography

Sharmistha Mukherjee was born on Saturday, 30 October 1965 (age 54 years; as in 2019) in West Bengal. Her zodiac sign is Scorpio. She did her schooling from Lady Irwin School in Delhi. She did her graduation from St Stephen’s College in Delhi and post-graduation in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Sharmistha grew up in Delhi. After seeing a performance of Pandit Durgalal in an event, she decided to learn Kathak from him. At the age of 12, she started training under Durgalal and was later trained under Vidushi Uma Sharma and Rajendra Gangani.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 4″

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Black

Family, Caste & Husband

She belongs to a Bengali Family. Her father, Pranab Mukherjee is an Indian Politician and served as the 13th President of India. Her mother, Suvra Mukherjee (Singer & Painter) was the First Lady of India (from 2012 until her death in 2015).

She has two brothers – Abhijit Mukherjee, a politician and former MP from the Jangipur Parliamentary Constituency and Indrajit Mukherjee.

Career

Dance

Sharmishta has performed in more than 40 countries. Over the years, she developed her own style of Kathak dance and has even performed to the Brandenburg Concertos, by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Politics

Sharmistha joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in July 2014.

She has been an active participant in the party’s rallies and has worked with the party’s workers at a grass-root level. She contested the Delhi Assembly Elections in 2015 from the Greater Kailash Constituency, gaining 6102 votes and lost to Saurabh Bharadwaj (AAP; 57,589 votes) and Rakesh Gullaiya (BJP; 43,006 votes). Sharmistha was assigned as the Communication Head of the Delhi Congress, but she resigned from the post, on 14 February 2019. She was appointed the Chief of Mahila Congress Delhi by Rahul Gandhi in 2019. Sharmistha, along with Anshul Kumar, was appointed as the National Spokesperson for Congress in June 2019.

Controversies

• In 2016, a man named Partha Mandal was continuously sending offensive messages to her on her Facebook Messenger. She took to her Facebook account to expose the online harasser. Her post went viral, and she was applauded for taking a strong stand against such online harassers. Her post read-
  

  This pervert Partha Mandal is sending me dirty sexual messages. My 1st reaction was to ignore & block him. But then I thought the silence wud encourage him to find other victims. Just blocking & reporting is not enough. I strongly feel such ppl shd be publicly exposed & humiliated. I’m posting screenshots of his profile & messages he sent me. I’m also tagging him. Pls share this post & tag this rat as a msg that these pervert acts will not be taken lightly.

  

• In 2017, the Indian National Congress posted a picture of Rajiv Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee, with the caption, “Shri Rajiv Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee, in 1985.” It offended Sharmistha, and she slammed Congress, for not addressing her father as ‘Shri,’ when he was the then President of the country. Soon after her tweet went viral, the INC deleted their tweet. ^[1]Arre

• In 2018, after Pranab Mukherjee attended an RSS event on 7 June in Nagpur, rumours of her joining the Bharatiya Janata Party started to stroll on the internet. Miffed at the rumours, she took to her Twitter account and wrote, ^[2]National Herald
  

  In the mountains enjoying a beautiful sunset, and suddenly this news that I’m supposedly joining BJP hits like a torpedo! Can’t there be some peace and sanity in this world? I joined politics because I believe in Congress. Would rather leave politics than leave Congress.

• In December 2019, Sharmistha, along with some other members of the Delhi Mahila Congress, were detained near Amit Shah‘s residence and were taken to the Mandir Marg Police Station, when she was protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. ^[3]The Economic Times
  

  Sharmistha Mukherjee Protesting Against CAA

Address

Resident-S-22, 2nd Floor Greater Kailash -II, ND-110048

Assets/Properties

She has movable and immovable assets of around Rs. 2.9 Crores (as in 2014). ^[4]myneta.info

Favourite Things

• Poet: Rabindranath Tagore

• Political Leader: Subhas Chandra Bose

• Musician(s): Budhaditya Mukherjee (Sitar Player), Swapan Chaudhuri (Tabla Player)

• Philosopher: Swami Vivekananda

• Singer: M. S. Subbulakshmi

Facts/Trivia

• She likes reading and listening to Indian classical music.

• Sharmistha’s grandfather, Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a freedom fighter and the member of West Bengal Legislative Council from 1952 to 1964. He was also a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

• Sharmistha had expressed before that she was not interested in politics and was more focused on her dance career. However, she joined the INC in 2015.

• Due to her mother’s deteriorating health, Sharmistha had to take up the role of the temporary hostess of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and accompanied her father in many official meetings.
  

  Sharmistha Mukherjee’s Mother

• Sharmistha has been vocal about issues of the women in India and openly expresses her views on social media platforms. She is often seen making bold statements in public, even if it means going against her father’s views. In an interview, she said,
  

  That’s how I grew up, & that’s why I don’t have any problem expressing my differences with him on issues even in public. We are a democratic, argumentative family; & I learnt this from my father only.

• According to Sharmistha, she is the only one in her family, who can argue with her father. Her father used to call her ‘Monkey’ with love in her childhood.

• When she was studying in class 12, she started to perform with her mentor’s group and hardly studied. Her mother kept on telling her to study, but she did not care to study. A few months before her exams, her father told her that it was absolutely fine; if she didn’t want to study, but she shouldn’t expect help from him in getting good college later. It triggered her ego, and she started to study hard.
  

  Sharmistha Mukherjee with her Father

• In 2013, Sharmistha walked the ramp for the first time at a charity event organized by Earth Foundation, which was hosted by Turkish Embassy in Delhi.
  

  Sharmistha Mukherjee Walking the Ramp

• In 2023, Sharmistha Mukherjee authored a book titled ‘Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers.’ The book recounted various incidents from her father Pranab’s diary, his shared thoughts, and his interactions with several politicians. It, moreover, shed light on his relationship with various politicians including Rahul Gandhi, whom he perceived as politically immature. ^[5]India Today
  

  The cover page of the book ‘Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers’ (2023)