New Delhi: When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget on February 1, she will edge closer to one of the longest-standing records in India’s parliamentary history. It will mark her ninth Budget in a row since taking charge of the finance ministry in 2019. A run that has already put her among the most frequent Budget presenters the country has seen.
Her remarkable run is great, but still the all-time record belongs to former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Across different stints in office, Desai presented the Union Budget 10 times. His remarkable feat remains untouched for decades. His first Budget came in 1959 and over the next several years he returned to the exercise repeatedly, presenting a mix of full and interim Budgets through the 1960s.
Desai’s tally was built in two phases. He delivered a string of Budgets from 1959 to the early 1960s and then after a break he came back to present more in the late 1960s eventually taking his total into double digits. No finance minister since has crossed that number.
The names behind Desai
The second spot on the list is held by P Chidambaram, who presented the Budget nine times. His appearances were spread across two political eras. He first handled the Budget in the mid-1990s and then returned in the 2000s to deliver five back-to-back Budgets before adding two more in the early 2010s.
Nirmala Sitharaman currently stands next tied with Pranab Mukherjee on eight Budgets each. Mukherjee’s Budgets spanned decades, beginning in the early 1980s and ending in 2012. By contrast, Sitharaman has delivered hers in one uninterrupted stretch since 2019 along with an interim Budget in 2024.
With the upcoming presentation, she will move past Mukherjee and claim the third position on her own while also drawing level with Chidambaram’s overall count of nine.
Who holds record for most consecutive budgets?
Sitharaman has already made history is in consecutive presentations. She became the first finance minister to present eight Union Budgets in a row overtaking Morarji Desai’s earlier run of six consecutive Budgets.
If her current streak continues, attention will soon shift from rankings to the possibility of challenging Desai’s overall record of 10. For now, the February Budget will cement her place among the most prominent figures in the long timeline of India’s annual financial statement.