Palaniyappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer, who currently serves as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha.Piyush Goyal, Chidambaram, Suresh Prabhu, Sharad Yadav elected to Rajya Sabha – The Economic Times . Economictimes.indiatimes.com (3 June 2016). Retrieved on 2016-08-18. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs from 2017 to 2018. He also served as Interim Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha from 2022 to 2023 under Mallikarjun Kharge.
Chidambaram has served as the Union Minister of Finance four times. Most recently, he held the role for the entirety of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014, except for a three-year period as Minister of Home Affairs, during which he oversaw India's domestic security response to the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Chidambaram returned as Finance Minister in July 2012, succeeding Pranab Mukherjee, who resigned to become the President of India. He was included in Time 100 list in 2013. He was also the head of Congress Manifesto Committee for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections and 2024 Indian General Elections.
Early life and education Chidambaram was born to Kandanur L. Ct. L. Palaniyappan Chettiyar and Lakshmi Aachi at Kanadukathan in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu. His maternal grandfather was Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, a wealthy merchant and banker from Chettinad.. news.outlookindia.com (23 April 2009). Retrieved 16 August 2011.
Chidambaram did his schooling at the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, Chennai. He then passed the one-year Pre-university course 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 (Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College) and his MBA from Harvard Business School in the class of 1968. He also holds a Master's degree from Loyola College, Chennai.Meg Berté (MBA '00) – December 2005 – Alumni Bulletin – Harvard Business School . Alumni.hbs.edu. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
During this time, his politics inclined to the left and in 1969 he joined N. Ram, later an editor of The Hindu, and the women's activist Mythili Sivaraman in starting a journal called the Radical Review.
Chidambaram has two brothers and one sister.P Chidambaram Biography – About family, political life, awards won, history . Elections.in. Retrieved on 18 August 2016. His father's business interests covered textiles, trading and plantations in India. He chose to concentrate on his legal practice and stayed away from the family business.
Chidambaram enrolled as a lawyer in the Madras High Court, becoming a senior advocate in 1984. He had offices in Delhi and Chennai and practiced in the Supreme Court and various high courts of India.
Political career Chidambaram was elected to the Lok Sabha (lower house) of the Indian Parliament from the Sivaganga constituency of Tamil Nadu in general elections held in 1984. 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. He was inducted into the Union (Indian federal) Council of Ministers in the government headed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 21 September 1985 as a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Commerce and then in the Ministry of Personnel. His main actions during his tenure in this period was to control the price of tea and he has been criticized by the Government of Sri Lanka for destroying the Sri Lankan tea trade by fixing the prices of the commodity in India using state power. He was elevated to the rank of Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in January 1986. In October of the same year, he was appointed to the Ministry of Home Affairs as Minister of State for Internal Security. He continued to hold both offices until general elections were called in 1989. The Indian National Congress government was defeated in the general elections of 1989.
In June 1991, Chidambaram was inducted as a Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce, by the then Prime Minister Mr P V Narasimha Rao; a post he held till July 1992. He was later re-appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) 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 1996, Chidambaram quit the Congress party and joined a breakaway faction of the Tamil Nadu state unit of the Congress party called the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). In the general elections held in 1996, TMC along with a few national and regional level opposition parties, formed a coalition government.
Ministry of Finance
The coalition government came as a big break for Chidambaram, who was given the key cabinet portfolio of Finance. His 1997 budget is still remembered as the dream budget for the Indian economy. The coalition government was a short-lived one (it fell in 1998), but he was reappointed to the same portfolio in the government formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004.
In 1998, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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 led United Progressive Alliance government on 24 May 2004. During the intervening period Chidambaram made some experiments in his political career, leaving the TMC in 2001 and forming his own party, the Congress Jananayaka Peravai, largely focused on the regional politics of Tamil Nadu. The party failed to take off into mainstream Tamil Nadu or national politics. After the elections of 2004, when the Congress won the election he was inducted into the Council of Ministers under the new Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as cabinet Minister of Finance and he merged his party with the mainstream Congress party.
Ministry of Home Affairs
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.
He has been credited with taking the bold decision of prioritising elections above corporate demands to deploy security for the 2009 Indian Premier League.A victory for the terrorist? . The Hindu. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
In 2009, Chidambaram was re-elected from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency in the Congress and retained the Home ministry. He was one of the representatives of the central government when a tri-party agreement was signed with the Gorkha Hill Council and the Government of West Bengal, an agreement which was a result of Mamata Banerjee's effort to end a decade long unrest in the hills of Darjeeling."Historic pact paves way for peace in Darjeeling hills". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
The Indian National Congress appointed P. Chidambaram as one of thirteen senior spokespersons on 15 September 2014. He ceded his seat to his son Karti in 2014, which resulted in electoral defeat for his son. In 2016, he was elected as an MP of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament from the state of Maharashtra.
Parliamentary Committee assignments 13 September 2021 onwards: Member Committee on External Affairs.
Elections Contested Lok Sabha Elections Contested Year Constituency Party Votes % Opponent Votes % Result Margin 1984Sivaganga 68.10Tha. Kiruttinan 51.60 1989 65.86A. Ganesan 32.26 1991 67.49V. Kasinathan 29.12 1996 64.79M. Gowri Shankaran 26.53 1998 51.15K. Kalimuthu 41.19 1999 20.85E. M. Sudarsana Natchiappan 40.23 2004 60.01S. P. Karuppiah 35.62 2009 43.17Raja Kannappan 42.74
Rajya Sabha PositionParty Constituency From To Tenure Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha(1st Term) Maharashtra 5 July2016 16 June2022 Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha(2nd Term) Tamil Nadu 30 June2022 29 June2028
Positions held
From To Position / Role June 2022 Incumbent Elected to Rajya Sabha (Second Term)(Constituency: Tamil Nadu) Member, Committee on Finance(Sept. 2022 - Sept. 2023) Member, Committee on Home Affairs(Aug. 2023 - June 2024) Member, Committee on Finance(Sept. 2024 - Incumbent) Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Finance(Oct. 2024 - Incumbent) President, India–Italy Parliamentary Friendship Group(Feb. 2026 - Incumbent) July 2016 16 June 2022 Elected to Rajya Sabha (Resigned)(Constituency: Maharasthra) Chairman, Committee on Home Affairs(Sept. 2016 - May 2019) Member, General Purposes Committee(March 2017 - Nov. 2019) Member, Committee on External Affairs(Sept. 2019 - June 2022) 2009 2014 Member, Fifteenth Lok Sabha (Seventh Term) Union Cabinet Minister, Home Affairs (23 May 2009 - 31 Jul. 2012) Union Cabinet Minister, Finance (Aug. 2012 - May 2014) 2004 2009 Member, Fourteenth Lok Sabha (Sixth Term) Union Cabinet Minister, Finance (23 May 2004 - Nov. 2008) Union Cabinet Minister, Home Affairs (Dec. 2008 - May 2009) 1998 1999 Member, Twelfth Lok Sabha (Fifth Term) Member, Committee of Privileges Member, Committee on Finance Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs 1996 1998 Member, Eleventh Lok Sabha (Fourth Term) Union Cabinet Minister, Finance(with addn. charge of Law, Justice and Company Affairs)(Company Affairs till April 1997) 1991 1996 Member, Tenth Lok Sabha (Third Term) Union Minister of State, Commerce (Independent Charge)(1991-92) (1995-96) 1989 1991 Member, Ninth Lok Sabha (Second Term) Member, Committee to review Lok Sabha Secretariat Rules, 1955(1990-1990) Member, Public Accounts Committee(1990-91) Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Finance(1990-91) 1984 1989 Member, Eighth Lok Sabha (First Term) Union Deputy Minister, Commerce(Sept. 1985 - 1985) Union Minister of State, Home Affairs(Internal Security) Union Deputy Minister,Personnel, Administrative Reforms, Training,Public Grievances and Pensions (1985-89) 1985 1985 Joint Secretary, All India Congress Committee (I) 1976 1977 General-Secretary, Pradesh Congress Committee, Tamil Nadu 1973 1976 President, Youth Congress, Tamil Nadu 1972 1972 Member, All India Congress Committee
Family and personal life Chidambaram's mother, Lakshmi Acchi, was the daughter of Sir Annamalai Chettiar, a banker and merchant, and was granted the title of Raja by the British. Annamalai Chettiar was the founder of Annamalai University and United India Insurance Company Limited. His brother, Ramaswami Chettiar, was the founder of the Indian Bank and the co-founder of the Indian Overseas Bank.M.Ct.M Group Education and Business Activities . Mctmib.org. Retrieved 16 August 2011.Tamil Nadu / Sivaganga News : IOB founder’s birth centenary celebrated. The Hindu (4 August 2008). Retrieved 16 August 2011.Chennainagarathar.com . Chennainagarathar.com. Retrieved 16 August 2011.Welcome to Annamalai University . Annamalaiuniversity.ac.in. Retrieved 16 August 2011.Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar | Nagarathar Sangam of North America . Achi.org. Retrieved 16 August 2011.