Kolkata:
Avijit Mukherjee may be a newbie to politics, but he has a cache of experience to call upon. His father is Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and as Avijit officially signed up with the Congress in Kolkata today, it was his father who he cited.
"The decision is mine. But obviously I told him 'I have decided to join politics, I have given up my job'. He only gave a single piece of advice - 'think carefully...it's a game of uncertainty'."
50-year-old Avijit has given up his career as a senior executive at the Steel Authority of India Limited just in time for the West Bengal elections. He's expected to contest from Nalhati in the Birbhum district of the state, situated around 350 kilometres from Kolkata. The Congress is in the midst of delicate negotiations with its political partner - Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) - so Avijit is careful to stress that his constituency is not yet a done deal.
'If I am asked to contest from Nalhati, I'll do it," he said.
The diplomacy may well be inherited - his father is one of the party's main trouble-shooters, called upon regularly to soothe over crises with the Opposition, and with fractious allies.