P. Chidambaram Biography and Works.

Palaniappan Chidambaram was born on September 16, 1945 in Kanadukathan in Tamil Nadu. He is an Indian politician and presently serving as the Union Minister of Home Affairs in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. He has served as the Finance Minister of India from May 2004 to November 2008. He was made the Home Minister after Shivraj Patil resigned. He started his career in 1969 as a lawyer in the Madras High Court. He then served as a Senior Advocate in 1984.

His political career started in 1984 when he was first elected for the Indian National Congress (INC) as a Lok Sabha Member from the “Sivaganga’ Constituency. He was re-elected from the same constituency in the years, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2004 and 2009.

He then got a chance to serve as a Minister of State in Commerce Ministry in the Rajiv Gandhi government. In 1986, he served as a Minister of State’ in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Chidambaram got an additional responsibility as a Minister of State for Internal Security in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the same year.

After having resigned as the Minister of State (Independent) in Commerce Ministry in 1992 due to some controversies, he regained the portfolio in 1995.

Chidambaram formed the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) and went to the Lok Sabha as a TMC’s MP in 1996. He was appointed as a Union Minister of Finance by the then Prime Minister HD Deva Gowda. Later, he formed his own party, ‘Congress Jananayaka Peravaiand’ and merged it with the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2004.

Trivia

He is married to Nalini Chidambaram, a Senior Advocate and a tax lawyer practising in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court. The couple has a son Karti P Chidambaram, who is also a lawyer and a politician.