P Chidambaram Biodata

Birth Name : Chidambaram Palaniappan

Date of birth : 16/09/1945

Place of birth : Kanadukathan, Sivaganga Dist, Tamil Nadu, India

Palaniappan Chidambaram is an Indian politician affiliated with the 'Indian National Congress'. He was born on september 16, 1945 at Kanadukathan, Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu, India. His parents are 'Palaniappa Chettiar' and 'Lakshmi Achi'. Chidambaram is spouse of 'Nalini Chidambaram', this pair having a son 'Karthik Chidambaram'. Chidambaram did his schooling at the 'Madras Christian College' Higher Secondary School and received a pre-university degree from 'Loyola College', Chennai. After graduating with a BSc degree in statistics from the Presidency College, Chennai, he completed his Bachelor of Laws from the Madras Law College, and his MBA from Harvard Business School in the class of 1968. He also holds a master's degree from Loyola College in Chennai.

Position Held

1984: He got into politics and was first elected to the Lok Sabha from the Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu

1985: He first became a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi-led government as a Deputy Minister

1986: He was elevated to the rank of Minister of State

1991: He became a Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce

1996: He quit the Congress and joined the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC)

1996: After the elections of 1996, P. Chidambaram joined the coalition government and became the Union Finance Minister

2008: He became the Home Minister of India after Shivraj Patil was forced to give up his position

Early Life

Chidambaram maternal grandfather was 'Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar', a wealthy merchant and banker from Chettinad. Chidambaram has 2 brothers and 1 sister. He enrolled as a lawyer in the Madras High Court. He became a senior advocate in 1984. He had offices in Delhi and Chennai and practised in the Supreme Court and in various high courts of India. He is married to 'Nalini Chidambaram', daughter of Justice (Retd.) Kailasam, Supreme Court, and Mrs. Soundra Kailasam, a renowned Tamil Poet and author, who is a Senior Advocate and a tax lawyer practising in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, primarily in litigation related to the Central Excise department of the Government of India.

Political career

Chidambaram was elected to the 'Lok Sabha' of the Indian Parliament from the 'Sivaganga' constituency of Tamil Nadu in general elections held in 1984. He was re-elected from the same constituency in the general elections of and 2009. He was a union leader for MRF and worked his way up in the Congress party. He was the Tamil Nadu Youth Congress president and then the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee unit.

In June 1991, Chidambaram was inducted as a Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce, a post he held till July 1992. He was later re-appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce in February 1995 and held the post until April 1996. He made some radical changes in India's export-import (EXIM) policy, while at the Ministry of Commerce. In 1998, the 'Bharatiya Janata Party' took the reins of the Government for the first time and it was not until May 2004 that Chidambaram would be back in Government. Chidambaram became Minister of Finance again in the Congress party-Communist Party United Progressive Alliance government on 24 May 2004. On 30 November 2008, he was appointed the Union Home Minister following the resignation of 'Shivraj Patil' who had come under intense pressure to tender his resignation following a series of terror attacks in India, including the Mumbai attacks on 26 November 2008.