New Delhi :
Clearing the air over the formation of government in Goa, Manohar Parrikar has resigned from the post of Defence Minister and President Pranab Mukherjee has also accepted his resignation. For now, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been given additional charge of the ministry until the further arrangement is made.
This is not the first time that Arun Jaitley is given an additional charge of a ministry. In the past when BJP formed the government at the Centre in 2014, he was then also given the charge of the Defence Ministry.
In his two-decade-long political career, Jaitley has led various political portfolios. Apart from the Finance Ministry and the corporate affairs ministry, the 64-year-old lawyer has held the Information and Broadcasting Ministry from November 2014 to July 2016.
Before the BJP came to power at the Centre, Jaitley was the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from June 2009 to May 2014. During the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government in 2003-04, Jaitley was the Minister of Law and Justice.
A Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat since 2012, Jaitley was Minister of state (independent charge) for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
Typically a Delhiite, Jaitley was also the President of University of Delhi his college time after which he joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. Since 1991, he has been the member of the national executive of BJP.
