Pranab Mukherjee, resigned as the Union Finance Minister on 26 June 2012. A veteran Congress party leader, Mukherjee was appointed the Union Finance Minister on 24 January 2009, during the UPA I government. The victory of UPA in 2009 general elections saw him again occupying the finance portfolio in the UPA II Government. Mukherjee was first appointed as the Finance minister of India during the Indira Gandhi government in 1982 and he got his maiden annual budget presented in the Parliament in 1982-83.
Mukherjee was first elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament in 1969 from West Bengal. He was re-elected in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. His first stint as the Union Minister started in 1973, when he was appointed the Union Deputy Minister for Industrial Development in the Indira Gandhi government. He was first elected to the Loksabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, in 2004 from Jangipur constituency in West Bengal and was made the leader of the house by the ruling coalition on 25 May 2012. Mukherjee served in various capacities under three different Prime Ministers including Indira Gandhi, PV Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
In a Parliamentary career spanning more than four decades, Mukherjee held various key positions such as the Union Minister of External Affairs and Union Minister of Defence in various Congress governments. As the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission during PV Narsimha Rao government from 24 June 1991 to 15 May 1996, he was instrumental in the growth of Indian economy in the post economic reform era.
A key figure of the Congress led UPA government, Mukherjee was heading nearly a dozen Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on various crucial issues such as telecom, divestment, food security, water issues, gas pricing and large power projects, among others. His candidature for the Presidential Elections also made him to quit as the head of numerous EGoM.
Important Information:
A person must not hold any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said governnment. [ Article 58 of the Cionstitution of India]
However, a sitting President or Vice-President of the Union ot the Governor of any state or a Minister either for the Union or for any State is not disqualified for election as President. [ Article 58 of the Cionstitution of India]
If a member of either house of Parliament or of a house of the Legislature of any state be elected President, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that house on the date on which he enters upon his office as President. [Article 59 (1)].
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