Budget 2018: Finance Ministers who went on to become Prime Minister or President

Finance ministers are known to hold the most important portfolios across the world. In India, a lot of these ministers went on to lead the country taking the post of a Prime Minister (PM) or even a President.

Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi have presented the Budget while serving as the Prime Minister of India.

As Arun Jaitley is set to present his fifth Union Budget on Thursday February 1, we take a look at the Finance Ministers who went on to take larger roles.

Jawaharlal Nehru (FM and PM)

Beginning with country’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of independendt India from 1947 to 1964 and was the second to present the Union Budget (after Shanmukham Chetty) holding the Ministry of Finance portfolio in the financial year 1958-59.

Morarji Desai (FM to PM)

Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the highest number of Union Budgets at 10 times as the Finance Minister. Desai served as the finance minister from 13 March 1958 - 29 August 1963 after Jawaharlal Nehru and 13 March 1967 – 16 July 1969 after Indira Gandhi.

Later, Desai became the fourth Prime Minister of India between 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979.

Indira Gandhi (FM and PM)

Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, the first and only woman so far who served as the prime minister twice from 1966-77 and 1980-84. She also took on the Ministry of finance portfolio from 16 July 1969 – 27 June 1970.

Similarly Charan Singh, also held the post of finance minister while he served as the prime minister of India but did not present the Budget.

Charan Singh (FM to PM)

Similarly Charan Singh, held the post of finance minister (for a brief period January - July 1979) and then served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980.

Rajiv Gandhi (FM and PM)

Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, served as the prime minister from 1984 -1989 and presented the Union Budget from 1987-88, where he introduced the corporate tax, while holding the ministry of finance portfolio.

Manmmohan Singh (FM to PM)

One of the most significant finance ministers of India who opened up the liberalization and abolished the licence raj system in India, Manmohan Singh served as the Finance Minister from 1991 to 1996.

Prior to that, he was also the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 - 1985. He went on lead the country to become the Prime Minister under UPA regime taking the reign from Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2014 (before Narendra Modi).

R. Venkataraman (FM to President)

Venkataraman served as the finance minister on 14 January 1980 – 15 January 1982 presenting the Budget three times while at the chair,

He later went on to became the Vice President from 31 August 1984 – 24 July 1987 and then the President from 25 July 1987 – 25 July 1992.

V.P. Singh (FM to PM)

Vishwanath Pratap Singh served as the finance minister from December 1984 to 1 January 1987 and later became the Prime minister of India from 2 December 1989 – 10 November 1990

Pranab Mukherjee (FM to President)

Like Venkataram, Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister who went on to become the head of the state as the 13th President of India in July 2012.

He served as the finance minister from 1982 to 1984 and later on from 2009 to 2012. He has presented the Budget for seven times, third highest after P. Chidambaram and Morarji Desai and equaling the tally with Yashwant Sinha.

Arun Jaitley (?)

Does the present FM Arun Jaitley aspire to go higher up the chair? Let us wait and watch if he can make it to the President or Prime Minister’s post.