Finance, Corporate Affairs, Defence
Arun Jaitley (born 28 December 1952) is currently the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Defence of the Union cabinet of India in the 16th Lok Sabha. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has also previously held the portfolios as the Union cabinet Minister for Commerce and Industry, Law and Justice in the National Democratic Alliance government (1998-2004). In the 2014 general election, he unsuccessfully contested as Bharatiya Janata Partys candidate for Amritsar, where he was defeated by Indian National Congress candidate, Captain Amarinder Singh.He is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat (as of March 2006). He was chosen as the Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha on June 3, 2009 by L.K. Advani. On June 16, 2009 he resigned from the post of General Secretary of BJP as per his partys One Man One Post principle. He is also a member of the Central Election Committee of the party. In his capacity as the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, he has been credited for his excellent oratory skills which is matched equally by his intense research into the topic. However, Being in the party since 1980 he never contested any direct election until 2014. He was the partys candidate for Amritsar (replacing Navjot Singh Sidhu) for Indian general election, 2014 which he lost to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh.On 26 May 2014, Jaitley was selected by newly elected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to be the Minister of Finance (which includes the Ministry of Corporate Affairs) and Minister of Defence in his cabinet.