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President-elect: Pranab Mukherjee
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He is down to earth, lives modestly, and has admitted many a time that he cannot speak polished English. For one who is supremely self-confident, he can be humble. But he has a temper, and has more than once apologised to MPs for raising his voice.
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From the time he first became a minister for revenue and banking by Indira Gandhi in 1973, Mukherjee has held a variety of portfolios in successive governments. He first headed the finance ministry in 1982, and holds the same post today.
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After degrees in history, political science and law, Mukherjee gave up his two initial loves - teaching and journalism - to take to politics.
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His life journey began in December 1935 when he was born into a middle class family in Birbhum district of West Bengal. His father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a Congress politician too, and politics came naturally to the young man.
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Remarked a former secretary in the government who worked under him when Mukherjee was foreign minister: "He has a photographic memory for the fine print and remembers negotiating details and their articles and clauses like nobody can. So whatever you tell him, he will tell you more about it."
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He is considered a walking encyclopaedia on virtually everything related to politics and governance that makes it difficult for any bureaucrat to hoodwink or trip him.
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A powerful orator and a formidable negotiator, Pranabda - as the Bengali 'bhadralok' is adoringly addressed - came to acquire in his five decades of parliamentary politics traits that have earned him the admiration of even his political foes.
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He has presided over cabinet meetings when the prime minister has been away for the last 25 years, but somehow the top post has eluded him because of, what political observers widely feel, the wariness of the Gandhi family.
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PM Manmohan Singh and NCP chief Sharad Pawar are seen in this file photo with Pranab Mukherjee.
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Pranab Mukherjee is seen with PM Manmohan Singh at UPA II's anniversary in New Delhi. (Reuters)
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78-year-old Mukherjee is a man of unparalleled experience who has the rare distinction of having served at different times as foreign, defence and finance ministers.
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He is the man the Congress - both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh - have turned to every time there is a political crisis. Each time, Mukherjee has risen to the occasion, and even if he has not always succeeded, he invariably left a mark in parliamentary debates.
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His indispensability is reflected in the number of key ministerial decision-making groups, known as Group of Ministers, he has been asked to head since 2004 -- of the 183 groups formed, 83 were are under him.
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He devours books, works well past midnight, and said in a rare peek into his personal life in an interview that he hardly was able to find time for his family and his only interaction was often limited to giving his wife a goodnight peck before retiring to bed well past the usual bedtime.
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Mukherjee went through a bad phase when, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he fell out of favour vis-à-vis Rajiv Gandhi. He remained out in the cold for a long time, during which he formed a Congress splinter group that died a quick death.
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All through his political career, UPA's Presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee, has been successful in maintaining an unblemished image and upholding probity in public life.
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Pranab Mukherjee going through his papers during his stint as finance minister in 1983. HT file photo
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Pranab Mukherjee with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the Delhi airport in 1986. HT file photo
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Pranab Mukherjee with his wife, Suvra Mukherjee in 1987. The two preferred to stay at 13, Talkatora Road even though Mukherjee was entitled to a better bungalow in his capacity as the finance minister. HT file photo
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Pranab Mukherjee in celebration mode with the then state Youth Congress (I) chief Mamata Banerjee after his victory in the biennial poll to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal in 1993. HT file photo
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Pranab Mukherjee participating in a puja ceremony at his ancestral home in Mirati, near Bolpur, Birbhum in 2009. Back then, Mukherjee was the Union finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. HT file photo
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UPA's Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee speaks at the 2011 HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi. (HT Photo/Raj K Raj)
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In this 1994 file photo, Pranab Mukherjee is seen with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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In this photo from HT's archives, former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao discusses with Pranab Mukherjee. Mukherjee has been nominated as the UPA's Presidential candidate.
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In this HT archive photo, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is seen with Pranab Mukherjee. Mukherjee has been nominated by the UPA as its Presidential candidate.
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In this HT archive photo, former foreign secretary K Srinivasan is seen with Pranab Mukherjee. Mukherjee has been nominated as the UPA's Presidential candidate.
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In this 1999 file photo, Pranab Mukherjee is seen with Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and Meira Kumar.
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