P. Chidambaram is the finance minister of India in the Congress-led UPA government (2004-2009). He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, the constituency from which he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984. He was minister of state for commerce and also for personnel from 1985 to 89 in Rajiv Gandhi's ministry and was minister of state for commerce with independent charge from 1991 to 1996 in the Narasimha Rao government. He was Finance Minister from 1996 to 1998 in the United Front government.

Career

An MBA graduate from Harvard, he started as a leftist, went on to be an architect of the Congress government's economic reform strategies as Rajiv Gandhi's right hand man, and has today ascended to the post of India's Finance Minister with the new United Front Government, after yet another affiliation shift.

In 1996, Chidambaram quit the Congress over its decision to ally with AIADMK and joined the Tamil Maanila Congress. In 2001 he broke away from TMC and formed his own party, Congress Jananayaka Peravai. CJP has since merged with the Indian National Congress, and in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections Chidambaram was elected on a Congress symbol.

The letter P. in his name stands for initial, as his father's name is Palaniyappan. See Indian family name for a further reading.

External links

• Profile at Lok Sabha page
• Budget 2004-2005 - Video clipping of Chidambaram's Budget speech
• Profile on ieo.org
• Profile at BBC dated May 24, 2004