Pranab Kumar Mukherjee was born 11 December 1935 is the 13th and current President of India in office since July 2012. In a political careen 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 part's top trouble shooter. 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 parliament, on a Congress ticket, Following a meteoric rise, he became on of Indira Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants, and minister in her cabinet by 1973. During the controversial Internal Emergency of 1975-75, he was accused (like several other ministers) of committing gross excesses. Mukerjee's serve in number of ministerial capacities culminated in his first stint as finance minister in 1982 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 right successor to Indira following her assassination in 1984. Mukherjee lost out in the ensuing power struggle. he formed his own party, the Rashtiya 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. Narshimha Rao appointed him planning Commission head in 1991 and foreign minister in 1995. Following this, as slender statesman of the Congress Mukherjee was the principal architect of Sonia Ganhi'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.