Pravind Jugnauth

Pravind Jugnauth

Pravind Kumar Jugnauth MP Esq. (born:परावीन्द कुमार जुग्नौथ on 25 December 1961) is a Mauritian politician who served in the government of Mauritius as Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance from 11 May 2010 to 26 July 2011. He is also Member of Parliament for the 8th constituency Quartier Militaire and Moka.

He is the heir of the Jugnauth Family a prominent Indo-Mauritian family of Bihari descent settled in Vacoas-Phoenix, Mauritius. He served in Prime Minister Ramgoolam's Cabinet. He previously held the same position from 2003 to 2005.

He is the leader of Militant Socialist Movement since 2003 and is the only son of Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Lady Sarojini Jugnauth. His candidacy for Parliamentary General Elections in Constituency No 9, Rose Belle and Vieux Grand Port in 2000 made him elected as Member of Parliament from there. He surprisingly defeated Arvin Boolell who was and outgoing Minister and also 1st member of parliament being elected from that constituency from 1987. He was appointed as Minister of Agriculture by President Uteem to serve in the cabinet. He served as Minister under the premiership of his father Anerood Jugnauth who became Prime Minister in 2000 after winning the elections with then MSM/MMM coalition.

With a public image of a young, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Leadership elections of the Militant Socialist Movement in May 2003. As a result of having a new leader, Anerood Jugnauth resigned in September 2003 as Prime Minister. Pravind Jugnauth supported candidate Paul Berenger to become Prime Minister. Whilst Berenger was head of the cabinet, Jugnauth climbed the ladder and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Jugnauth studied Law at University of Buckingham, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Lincoln's Inn and became a Barrister. He then joined Aix-Marseille University in France where he graduated with an LLM. He officially joined the MSM in 1990 and was honored Doctor from the University of Buckingham with a Honoris Causa in 2005.

In the parliamentary elections of 2010, he and the MSM joined hands with the Mauritian Labour Party and Mauritian Social Democrat Party and formed a coalition known as Ptr-MSM-PMSD. Whilst the alliance presented 60 candidates, out of which 41 were directly elected and formed a total of 45 Mps against 20 Mps for the opposition party, the Mauritian Militant Movement. His party succeeded in bringing 15 directly elected candidates while, the labours won 26 seats and the social democrats obtained 4 seats. He was elected 1st Member of parliament for constituency of Moka-Quartier Militaire.

Navin Ramgoolam, leader of the labours became Prime Minister once more in 2010 and appointed some members as part of the alliance to the cabinet and Pravind was given the 4th position in cabinet.

Following his election as member of parliament, in the process of appointing the new cabinet of ministers, his father, the President Sir Anerood Jugnauth on the advice of Navin Ramgoolam appointed him as Vice Prime Minister & Minister of Finance taking office as from 11 May 2010. In the morning of 26 July 2011 at 11.55 am, he resigned from his office of minister as well as all other MSM Ministers due to a scandale involving one of the MSM ministers.