Which portfolio did Dr. Rajendra Prasad hold during the interim government of 1946 ?
Food and agriculture
Rajendra Prasad held Food and Agriculture — option 3.
The Interim Government. Formed on 2 September 1946 from the newly elected Constituent Assembly, it was headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice-President of the Viceroy’s Executive Council — the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, remaining its formal President. The Muslim League stayed out at first and joined in October.
| Member | Portfolio |
|---|---|
| Jawaharlal Nehru | Vice-President of the Council; External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations |
| Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel | Home, Information and Broadcasting |
| Dr Rajendra Prasad | Food and Agriculture |
| Baldev Singh | Defence |
| C. Rajagopalachari | Education |
| John Mathai | Industries and Supplies |
| Asaf Ali | Railways and Transport |
| Liaquat Ali Khan (from October) | Finance |
Why the portfolio suited him. Prasad came from a peasant district of Bihar and had worked on agrarian questions since Champaran in 1917; the country was also facing acute food shortages in the aftermath of the war and the Bengal famine of 1943, so the department was among the most demanding of the moment.
Where the trap lies. Options 1 and 2 are the two portfolios most often associated with the Interim Government, but they belonged to others — Defence to Baldev Singh and Home to Sardar Patel, whose tenure at Home began here and continued into independent India. Note also that Liaquat Ali Khan’s Finance portfolio allowed the League to obstruct the working of every other department, which is part of why the arrangement broke down.
What Rajendra Prasad did next. He was elected President of the Constituent Assembly on 11 December 1946, and became the first President of India in 1950, serving two full terms — the only person to do so.
Hence, the answer is Food and agriculture.
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