Things were going smooth for him until the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Mukherjee's much-anticipated ambition to be Prime Minister of India after Indira Gandhi's assassination never happened. Rajiv Gandhi's decision to keep Mukherjee out of his cabinet was an acrimonious moment in the long relationship that the Congress stalwart enjoyed with the grand old party. Later, not hiding his emotions on the development, Mukherjee wrote, "When I learned of my ouster from the Cabinet, I was shell-shocked and flabbergasted. I could not believe it. But I composed myself and sat alongside my wife as she watched the swearing-in ceremony on television."