Will Manmohan Singh be a Better Finance Minister?

Bangalore: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will resign from his post in the late afternoon of Tuesday to contest presidential elections. Mukherjee said he will submit his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at around 4:30pm.

"I will put in my papers around 4:30 (pm). I will be leaving office around 4:30 (pm) and after meeting PM, I will be leaving for home," he told reporters outside his North Block office.

But as he resigns, the big question is who will replace him in the party and in the government? The economic scenario is gloomy and there is policy paralysis. Further, the foreign investors are not too enthusiastic and a liberal, pro-reforms, corporate friendly finance minister is needed.

Besides the need for a new finance minister, the Congress will have to think of someone to replace him as leader of the house. Mukherjee has been the party's chief trouble-shooter and dealt with the difficult allies and the aggressive opposition parties.

As for the Finance Minister's role, many analysts are of the opinion that a change in guard has been long overdue. According to sources, PM Manmohan Singh is likely to retain the finance portfolio for now. He is also expected to step in to deal with the battered economy, inflation and the poor growth of the nation.

There are rumors whether he will keep the portfolio till the end of the UPA tenure in 2014, or will he find somebody else to hand it over to.