Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a man for all seasons for the Congress party, has expressed the desire to quit active politics at the end of the current term of the UPA government in 2014.

"....when this tenure will be over, I will be 79. Perhaps that is the time for having a little bit of rest", he said when asked if he desired to move into the Rashtrapati Bhawan some day.

Considered as the number two in the Manmohan Singh government, Mukherjee said at the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi, "I will go to my study where I have collected a large number of books which I did not have the time to read".

A troubleshooter for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mukherjee was involved in almost all policy matters as he headed dozens of ministerial panels on contentious issues like telecom, gas pricing and foreign direct investment.

Mukherjee, who many consider to be an encyclopedia on Indian politics, the functioning of Parliament, economy and foreign policy, entered the Rajya Sabha in 1969 and jumped into electoral politics only as late as 2004.