It's a tough road ahead my father told me: President's daughter Sharmistha

Confident about winning her maiden election from the prestigious Greater Kailash Assembly constituency, President Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha is going by her father's valued advice of putting in "hard work" and "being patient".

"My father only told me that when you have joined politics it's a tough road ahead and you really have to work hard and you have to be patient. I am just keeping these words in mind," Sharmistha, who is fighting on a Congress ticket, told PTI.

49-year-old Sharmistha is second among the three children of the President to join politics. Earlier, her elder brother Abhijit joined Congress, debuting from Nalhati Assembly constituency of West Bengal in 2011 and later became an MP from Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency which was vacated by his father after being elected as President.

The Greater Kailash seat was bagged by Aam Aadmi Party's Sourav Bharadwaj in the 2013 Assembly election by polling 43,097 votes against BJP's 30,005 votes. Congress had managed a third position with 19,641 votes.

However, Mukherjee said this time it will be a two-cornered fight between her party and BJP.

She said, "You know, wherever I am going people are asking me how are you going to counter the Modi wave, nobody asked me how are you going to counter Sourav Bharadwaj."

"Moreover, Greater Kailash has traditionally been a BJP strong hold. Out of the four wards in my constituency three are held by BJP. It was only in the last election that AAP won, but my observation says that this time the fight here will be a two-way contest between Congress and BJP."

Speaking about her timing of joining the party, Sharmistha said, "I think this is the time people who believe in Congress can truly come and do something for the party. I could have joined the party earlier when it was in power, but this is the time when we all can do whatever little in our own way."