Pranab Mukherjee

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Pranab Mukherjee
13th President of India
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 July 2012
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Vice President	Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Preceded by	Pratibha Patil
Minister of Finance
In office 24 January 2009 – 26 June 2012
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Manmohan Singh
Succeeded by	Manmohan Singh
In office 15 January 1982 – 31 December 1984
Prime Minister	Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi
Preceded by	R. Venkataraman
Succeeded by	V. P. Singh
Minister of External Affairs
In office 24 October 2006 – 23 May 2009
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Manmohan Singh
Succeeded by	S. M. Krishna
In office 10 February 1995 – 16 May 1996
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Dinesh Singh
Succeeded by	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Minister of Defence
In office 22 May 2004 – 26 October 2006
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	George Fernandes
Succeeded by	A. K. Antony
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission
In office 24 June 1991 – 15 May 1996
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Mohan Dharia
Succeeded by	Madhu Dandavate
Personal details
Born	Pranab Kumar Mukherjee 11 December 1935 (age 77) Mirati, Bengal Presidency,British India (now in West Bengal, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress(1969–1986; 1989–2012) Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (1986–1989)
Other political affiliations	United Front (1996–2004) United Progressive Alliance(2004–present)
Spouse(s)	Suvra Mukherjee (1957–present)
Children	Sharmistha, Abhijit, Indrajit
Alma mater	University of Calcutta
Religion	Hinduism
Awards	Padma Vibhushan (2008)
Website	Official Website

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (/prənəb kʊmɑːr mʉkhərdʒiː/; born 11 December 1935) is the 13th and current President of India, in office since July 2012. In a political career spanning six decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012, and the Congress party's top troubleshooter.

Mukherjee got his break in politics in 1969 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped him get elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament, on a Congress ticket. Following a meteoric rise, he became one of Indira Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants, and a minister in her cabinet by 1973. During the controversial Internal Emergency of 1975–77, he was accused (like several other Congress leaders) of committing gross excesses. Mukherjee's service in a number of ministerial capacities culminated in his first stint as Finance Minister in 1982–84. Mukherjee was also Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985.

Mukherjee was sidelined from the Congress during the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's son. Mukherjee had viewed himself, and not the inexperienced Rajiv, as the rightful successor to Indira following her assassination in 1984. Mukherjee lost out in the ensuing power struggle. He formed his own party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, which merged with the Congress in 1989 after reaching a compromise with Rajiv Gandhi. Mukherjee's political career revived when Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him Planning Commission head in 1991 and Foreign Ministerin 1995. Following this, as elder statesman of the Congress, Mukherjee was the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi's ascension to the party's presidency in 1998.

When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came into power in 2004, Mukherjee, never a mass leader, won a Lok Sabha (the popularly elected lower house of Parliament) seat for the first time. From then until his resignation in 2012, Mukherjee was practically number-two in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. He held a number of key cabinet portfolios—Defence (2004–06), External Affairs (2006–09) and Finance (2009–12)—apart from heading several Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and being Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. After securing the UPA's nomination for the country's Presidency, in July 2012 Mukherjee comfortably defeated P. A. Sangma in the race to Rashtrapati Bhavan, winning 70 percent of the electoral-college vote.