Antony Leung: a man of faith ready for a big comeback?

March 2002 was possibly the best month in the political career of Antony Leung Kam-chung, then a financial secretary buoyed by the cheers that greeted his maiden budget speech.

That budget - a combination of recession-beating relief measures and potential civil-service pay cuts to tackle a deficit - helped boost Leung's popularity to his personal record of 65.4 points out of 100 in a University of Hong Kong poll.

He became one of the most popular ministers in chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's cabinet - and a perceived front runner to succeed his boss.

Also in March 2002, the 50-year-old brought his romance with Olympic gold medallist Fu Mingxia out into the open. The former "diving queen", who at 23 was almost 27 years his junior, married him in July that year.

Ironically, it was the budget exactly a year later that ended Leung's ministerial career abruptly, when he was revealed to have bought a Lexus saloon just before increasing taxes on car registration in the annual speech.

Leung apologised, explaining that none of his cars were suitable for a newborn baby, given his wife was heavily pregnant.

Unfortunately for him, 2003 was the year when half a million people marched on July 1 to protest at a national security bill and at Tung's "failed" governance - in which Leung had already drawn much unwanted attention. He eventually resigned.