Claim: Pranab Mukherjee is the president of India.

` Pranab Kumar Mukherjee -LRB- born 11 December 1935 -RRB- is the 13th and current President of India , he has been in office since July 2012 . In a political career spanning six decades , Mukherjee was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India . Prior to his election as President , Mukherjee was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 , and the Congress party 's top troubleshooter .   Mukherjee got his break in politics in 1969 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped him get elected to the Rajya Sabha , the upper house of Parliament , on a Congress ticket . Following a meteoric rise , he became one of Indira Gandhi 's most trusted lieutenants , and a minister in her cabinet by 1973 . During the controversial Internal Emergency of 1975 -- 77 , he was accused -LRB- like several other Congress leaders -RRB- of committing gross excesses . Mukherjee 's service in a number of ministerial capacities culminated in his first stint as finance minister in 1982 -- 84 . Mukherjee was also Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985 .   Mukherjee was sidelined from the Congress during the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi , Indira 's son . Mukherjee had viewed himself , and not the inexperienced Rajiv , as the rightful successor to Indira following her assassination in 1984 . Mukherjee lost out in the ensuing power struggle . He formed his own party , the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress , which merged with the Congress in 1989 after reaching a consensus with Rajiv Gandhi . Mukherjee 's political career revived when Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him Planning Commission head in 1991 and foreign minister in 1995 . Following this , as elder statesman of the Congress , Mukherjee was the principal and architect of Sonia Gandhi 's ascension to the party 's presidency in 1998 .   When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance -LRB- UPA -RRB- came into power in 2004 , Mukherjee won a Lok Sabha -LRB- the popularly elected lower house of Parliament -RRB- seat for the first time . From then until his resignation in 2012 , Mukherjee was practically number-two in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 's government . He held a number of key cabinet portfolios -- Defence -LRB- 2004 -- 06 -RRB- , External Affairs -LRB- 2006 -- 09 -RRB- and Finance -LRB- 2009 -- 12 -RRB- -- apart from heading several Groups of Ministers -LRB- GoMs -RRB- and being Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha . After securing the UPA 's nomination for the country 's presidency in July 2012 , Mukherjee comfortably defeated P. A. Sangma in the race to Rashtrapati Bhavan , winning 70 percent of the electoral-college vote .