Do you feel you are ready for mainstream politics?

Politics is very much like being a first-time mother. Pregnancy and delivery is the easy part; once the baby comes, you instinctively know what to do and what not to do.

Politics, I think, is very similar. This is the easy part, the elections. The work starts after that and you have to be very focused in what you want to do.

I am very focused in why I joined politics. I joined politics because I wanted to do more good work. I was doing social work before with my father. This is just an extension of that.

I am not a politically ambitious person. I don't want to grow from this and become a minister. My focus is my constituency and Mumbai.

In all the years that you worked with your father, did you, at any time, seriously consider entering politics?

No, I never had that desire to enter politics ever because I was very happy doing what I was doing. It was a small contribution, but that life gave you the freedom [laughs wistfully] to do what you want to do.

I know your next question [laughs]. You want to know why I changed my mind.

After my father passed away, it took me nearly a month to decide I wanted to do this. There was a lot of support from my family -- my sister, my brother, my brother-in-law, my husband. I think that helped me make up my mind.

And then, there was the kind of response I saw from the people, the common man, at my father's funeral. I realised the number of lives he had touched. You know, from the smallest person who came up and told us what my father had done for them -- little things I had not even been aware of -- I realised the amount of goodwill he has among the people. It would be criminal to just let that go.

For me, this is paying back to the people for the amount of love and respect they gave my father. It's taking his work forward.

Do you think your candidature will continue to propagate the trend of dynastic politics in India?

There was a time when you could put any candidate up and they would give three promises and people would vote for them.

But people are not naive any more. They have tremendous awareness, especially in Mumbai, where they are not going to vote for you because you are an actor or because you are somebody's son or daughter. They are going to vote for you if they have seen you work before or because they believe you are capable of working for them.

My father has won the elections here for 20 years and people have seen me working with him. That is one of the reasons why people will vote for me. They know that if this girl is voted into power, she will work with us.

You are considered politically naive.

There have been people -- I have read in the press -- who have said I am politically naive, but everyone has to start somewhere. I think everybody is naive about everything till they get into it and they start learning. There would be no learning in this world if everybody was born an expert.

Sonia Gandhi was called a political novice too, but she has proved herself otherwise. I think she is doing a great job.

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