Pawan Kumar Bansal

Introduction :

Pawan Kumar Bansal is 76 years old Loksabha MP, elected from Chandigarh of Chandigarh state as a member of Indian National Congress Party.

Background information of Pawan Kumar Bansal:

Pawan Kumar Bansal Was a popular congress youth leader in Chandigarh. He was General Secretary of Chandigarh Territorial Youth Congress in 1976.

He was first elected to Rajyasabha in 1984. Pawan Bansal was close to Rajiv Gandhi and is very loyal to the Gandhi Dynasty.

Later in 1991, Bansal contested for LokSabha seat from the Chandigarh and won. He again contested in 1996 for the same seat and lost.
Since 1999 he has won the loksabha MP seat from Chandigarh in all the three elections, i.e. 2004 and 2009.

He served as minister of state for finance in the union government from 29th January 2006 to 22nd May 2009. He also served as minister of state for parliamentary affairs from 6th April 2008 to 22nd May 2009.

After getting elected from the same seat for 4th term in 2009, Bansal was appointed as Union Cabinet Minister.He served as Cabinet Minister in many ministries.
From 14th June 2009 to 18th Jan 2011, he served as Union Cabinet Minister, Water Resources.
From 19th January 2011 to 28th October 2012, he served as Union Cabinet Minister, Parliamentary Affairs.
From 19th January 2011 to 19th July 2011, he served as union Cabinet Minister, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.
From July 2011 to 28 October 2012, he again served as Union Cabinet Minister, Water Resources.
From 28th October 2012 to 10th May 2013 he served as Union Cabinet Minister, Railways.

Corruption Charges and Resignation

On 4th May 2013, Vijay Singla, son of Bansal’s sister was arrested by CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.90 lakh( Rupees 9 million) from Mahesh Kumar, a Railway Board member. Mahesh Kumar wanted to get promoted as Railway Board Chairman. Vijay Singla used to look after Pawan Bansal’s business interests and is involved in running his campaign in Chandigarh. Finally on 10th May 2013 , Pawan Bansal resigned. Bansal has continued to deny any wrongdoing and he has not been questioned by police yet.