From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

List of prime ministers of India

none

Summary

none

The prime minister of India is the chief executive of the Government of India and chair of the Union Council of Ministers. Although the president of India is the constitutional, nominal, and ceremonial head of state, in practice and ordinarily, the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers. The prime minister is the leader elected by the party with a majority in the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, which is the main legislative body in the Republic of India. The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha. The prime minister can be a member of the Lok Sabha or of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament. The prime minister ranks third in the order of precedence. |Top left: Jawaharlal Nehru was the first and the longest-serving prime minister in Indian history. |Top centre: Indira Gandhi was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister. |Top right: Charan Singh was the first and only prime minister in Indian history who never faced parliament. |Bottom left: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full 5 year term. |Bottom centre: Manmohan Singh was the first prime minister from a minority religion. |Bottom right: Narendra Modi is the only prime minister to be born in independent India and is the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister.}}

The prime minister is appointed by the president of India; however, the prime minister has to enjoy the confidence of the majority of Lok Sabha members, who are directly elected every five years, unless a prime minister resigns. The prime minister is the presiding member of the Council of Ministers of the Union government. The prime minister unilaterally controls the selection and dismissal of members of the council; and allocation of posts to members within the government. This council, which is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha as per Article 75(3), assists the president regarding the operations under the latter's powers; however, by the virtue of Article 74 of the Constitution, such 'aid and advice' tendered by the council is binding.

Since 1947, India has had 14 prime ministers. Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister, serving as prime minister of the Dominion of India from 15 August 1947 until 26 January 1950, and thereafter of the Republic of India until his death in May 1964. (India conducted its first post-independence general elections in 1952). Earlier, Nehru had served as prime minister of the Interim Government of India during the British Raj from 2 September 1946 until 14 August 1947, his party, the Indian National Congress having won the 1946 Indian provincial elections. Nehru was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose 1 year 7-month term ended in his death in Tashkent, then in the USSR, where he had signed the Tashkent Declaration between India and Pakistan. Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first female prime minister. Eleven years later, her party, the Indian National Congress, lost the 1977 Indian general election to the Janata Party, whose leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister. After Desai resigned in 1979, his former associate Charan Singh briefly held office until the Congress won the 1980 Indian general election and Indira Gandhi returned as prime minister. Her second term as prime minister ended five years later on 31 October 1984, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards. Her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's youngest premier. Members of NehruGandhi family have been prime minister for approximately 38 years.

After a general election loss, Rajiv Gandhi's five-year term ended; his former cabinet colleague, V. P. Singh of the Janata Dal, formed the year-long National Front coalition government in 1989. A seven-month interlude under prime minister Chandra Shekhar followed, after which the Congress party returned to power, forming the government under P. V. Narasimha Rao in June 1991, Rajiv Gandhi having been assassinated earlier that year. Rao's five-year term was succeeded by four short-lived governments—Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for 13 days in 1996, a year each under United Front prime ministers H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral, and Vajpayee again for 13 months in 1998–1999. The Congress and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the general elections in 2004 and 2009, Manmohan Singh serving as prime minister between 2004 and 2014. The BJP won the 2014 Indian general election, and its parliamentary leader Narendra Modi formed the first non-Congress single-party majority government. The BJP went on to win the 2019 Indian general election with a bigger margin, granting a second term for the incumbent Modi government. After the 2024 Indian general election, Modi became the prime minister for the third consecutive time, leading a coalition government after the BJP lost its majority, only the second to do so after the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

List of prime ministers of India

;Key

No.: Incumbent number
Assassinated or died in office
Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
Resigned
Resigned following a no-confidence motion
Dismissed by the Head of State

Portrait	Name
(borndied)
Constituency	Age when assumed office	Term of office
Duration in years and days	Election	Concurrent ministerial positions	Party	Ministry	Head of State
(Tenure)	Jawaharlal Nehru
(1889–1964)
MP for United Provinces
(1947–1952) and Phulpur	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
(1898–1998)
MP for Sabarkantha	Lal Bahadur Shastri
(1904–1966)
MP for Allahabad	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)
(1898–1998)
MP for Sabarkantha	Indira Gandhi
(1917–1984)
MP for Uttar Pradesh
(Rajya Sabha, 19661967)
MP for Rae Bareli (19671977)	Morarji Desai
(1896–1995)
MP for Surat	Charan Singh
(1902–1987)
MP for Baghpat	Indira Gandhi
(1917–1984)
MP for Medak	Rajiv Gandhi
(1944–1991)
MP for Amethi	V. P. Singh
(1931–2008)
MP for Fatehpur	Chandra Shekhar
(1927–2007)
MP for Ballia	P. V. Narasimha Rao
(1921–2004)
MP for Nandyal	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
(1924–2018)
MP for Lucknow	H. D. Deve Gowda
(born 1933)
MP for Karnataka (Rajya Sabha)	Inder Kumar Gujral
(1919–2012)
MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha)	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
(1924–2018)
MP for Lucknow	Manmohan Singh
(1932–2024)
MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha)	Narendra Modi
(born 1950)
MP for Varanasi
[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru, 1947.jpg	100px]]	57 years 274 days	15 August
1947	27 May
1964	16 years 286 days				Nehru I	King George VI
(19471950)
Rajendra Prasad
(19501962)
1951–52	Nehru II
1957	Nehru III
1962	Nehru IV	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(19621967)
[[File:Gulzarilal Nanda 1.jpg	100px]]		27 May
1964	9 June
1964				Nanda I
[[File:Lal Bahadur Shastri (cropped).jpg	frameless	123x123px]]	59 years 251 days	9 June
1964	11 January
1966				Shastri
[[File:Gulzarilal Nanda 1.jpg	100px]]		11 January
1966	24 January
1966				Nanda II
[[File:Indira Gandhi official portrait.png	100px]]		24 January
1966	24 March
1977				Indira I
1967	Indira II	Zakir Husain
(19671969)
*V. V. Giri
(1969) (acting)*
*Mohammad Hidayatullah
(1969) (acting)*
V. V. Giri
(19691974)
1971		Indira III
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
(19741977)
*B. D. Jatti
(1977) (acting)*
[[File:Morarji Desai During his visit to the United States of America (cropped).jpg	100px]]		24 March
1977	28 July
1979		1977			Desai
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
(19771982)
[[File:Prime minister Charan Singh.jpg	frameless	152x152px]]		28 July
1979	14 January
1980			None		Charan
[[File:Indira Gandhi official portrait.png	100px]]		14 January
1980	31 October
1984		1980			Indira IV
	Zail Singh
(1982-1987)
[[File:Rajiv Gandhi (1).jpg	frameless	135x135px]]		31 October
1984	2 December
1989				Rajiv I
1984	Rajiv II	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
(19871992)
[[File:Visit of Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Indian Minister for Trade, to the CEC (cropped).jpg	134x134px]]		2 December
1989	10 November
1990		1989			Vishwanath
[[File:Chandra Shekhar Singh 2010 stamp alt.jpg	100px]]		10 November
1990	21 June
1991					Chandra Shekhar
[[File:Visit of Narasimha Rao, Indian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the CEC (cropped)(2).jpg	125x125px]]		21 June
1991	16 May
1996		1991			Rao
Shankar Dayal Sharma
(19921997)
[[File:Atal Bihari Vajpayee (crop 2).jpg	frameless	139x139px]]		16 May
1996	1 June
1996		1996			Vajpayee I
[[File:HD Devegowda.png	frameless	140x140px]]		1 June
1996	21 April
1997
(United Front)	Deve Gowda
[[File:Inder Kumar Gujral.jpg	100px]]		21 April
1997	19 March
1998				Gujral
K. R. Narayanan
(19972002)
[[File:Atal Bihari Vajpayee (crop 2).jpg	frameless	139x139px]]		19 March
1998	22 May
2004		1998
(National Democratic Alliance)	Vajpayee II
1999	Vajpayee III
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
(20022007)
[[File:Official Portrait of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh (3x4 cropped).jpg	100px]]		22 May
2004	26 May
2014		2004
(United Progressive Alliance)	Manmohan I
Pratibha Patil
(20072012)
2009	Manmohan II
Pranab Mukherjee
(20122017)
[[File:Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.jpg	center	frameless	139x139px]]		26 May
2014	Incumbent		2014
(National Democratic Alliance)	Modi I
Ram Nath Kovind
(20172022)
2019	Modi II
Droupadi Murmu
(2022present)
2024	Modi III

List of prime ministers by length of term

Name	Party	Longest continuous term	Total years of premiership
	Indian National Congress}}"	INC	16 years, 286 days
	Indian National Congress}}"	INC/INC(I)/INC(R)	11 years, 59 days	15 years, 350 days
****	Bharatiya Janata Party}}"	BJP	****
	Indian National Congress}}"	INC	10 years, 4 days
	Bharatiya Janata Party}}"	BJP	6 years, 64 days	6 years, 80 days
	Indian National Congress}}"	INC(I)	5 years, 32 days
	4 years, 330 days
	Janata Party}}"	JP	2 years, 126 days
	Indian National Congress}}"	INC	1 year, 216 days
	Janata Dal}}"	JD	343 days
	332 days
	324 days
	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)}}"	SJP(R)	223 days
	Janata Party (Secular)}}"	JP(S)	170 days
** (acting)	Indian National Congress}}"	INC	13 days	26 days

;Timeline ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:13 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:70 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late

Colors = id:INC value:rgb(0,0.74902,1) legend:Indian_National_Congress id:JD value:Green legend:Janata_Dal id:JP value:blue legend:Janata_Party id:JP(S) value:purple legend:Janata_Party_(Secular) id:SJP(R) value:rgb(0,1,0.2) legend:Samajwadi_Janata_Party_(Rashtriya) id:BJP value:rgb(1,0.6,0.2) legend:Bharatiya_Janata_Party

id:gray1 value:gray(0.7) id:gray2 value:gray(0.9)

Define $today =

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:15/07/1947 till:$today TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1950 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1948

Legend = columns:1 left:150 top:44 columnwidth:200

TextData = pos:(20,47) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Political Party:"

BarData = bar:Nehru bar:Nanda bar:Shastri bar:IGandhi bar:Desai

bar:CSingh bar:RGandhi bar:VPSingh bar:ChandraShekhar bar:Rao bar:Vajpayee bar:DeveGowda bar:Gujral bar:MSingh bar:Modi

PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:8 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Nehru from: 15/08/1947 till: 27/05/1964 color:INC text:"Jawaharlal Nehru" bar:Nanda from: 27/05/1964 till: 09/06/1964 color:INC from: 11/01/1966 till: 24/01/1966 color:INC text:" Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)" bar:Shastri from: 09/06/1964 till: 11/01/1966 color:INC text:"Lal Bahadur Shastri" bar:IGandhi from: 24/01/1966 till: 24/03/1977 color:INC from: 14/01/1980 till: 31/10/1984 color:INC text:"Indira Gandhi" bar:Desai from: 24/03/1977 till: 28/07/1979 color:JP text:"Morarji Desai" bar:CSingh from: 28/07/1979 till: 14/01/1980 color:JP(S) text:"Charan Singh" bar:RGandhi from:31/10/1984 till: 02/12/1989 color:INC text:"Rajiv Gandhi" bar:VPSingh from: 02/12/1989 till: 10/11/1990 color:JD text:"V. P. Singh" bar:ChandraShekhar from: 10/11/1990 till: 21/06/1991 color:SJP(R) text:"Chandra Shekhar" bar:Rao from: 21/06/1991 till: 16/05/1996 color:INC text:"P. V. Narasimha Rao" bar:Vajpayee from: 16/05/1996 till: 01/06/1996 color:BJP from: 19/03/1998 till: 22/05/2004 color:BJP text:"Atal Bihari Vajpayee" bar:DeveGowda from: 01/06/1996 till: 21/04/1997 color:JD text:"H. D. Deve Gowda" bar:Gujral from: 21/04/1997 till: 19/03/1998 color:JD text:"Inder Kumar Gujral" bar:MSingh from: 22/05/2004 till: 26/05/2014 color:INC text:"Manmohan Singh" bar:Modi from: 26/05/2014 till: $today color:BJP text:"Narendra Modi"

Lifespan of prime ministers

Define $width = 1000 Define $warning = 900 # $width - 155 Define $height = 450 # 14x20 + 160

Define $start = 1888 Define $end = Define $now =

ImageSize = width:$width height:$height PlotArea = right:10 left:1 bottom:80 top:60 Period = from:$start till:$end TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal Legend = orientation:vertical columns:1 left:0 top:50 columnwidth:500

Colors = id:bg value:white id:lightline value:rgb(0.9, 0.9, 0.9) id:lighttext value:rgb(0.5, 0.5, 0.5) id:LIFESPAN value:rgb(0.88, 0.90, 0.70) Legend: Lifespan id:PM_INC value:rgb(0, 0.74902, 1) Legend: Indian_National_Congress id:PM_JP value:blue Legend: Janata_Party id:PM_JP(S) value:darkblue Legend: Janata_Party_(Secular) id:PM_JD value:kelleygreen Legend: Janata_Dal id:PM_SJP(R) value:green Legend: Samajwadi_Janata_Party_(Rashtriya) id:PM_BJP value:rgb(1, 0.6, 0.2) Legend: Bharatiya_Janata_Party id:NAME value:rgb(0.15, 0.13, 0.05) id:TODAY value:green

BackgroundColors = canvas:bg ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightline unit:year increment:1 start:$start ScaleMajor = gridcolor:lighttext unit:year increment:10 start:1890

Define $dy = -5 # shift text to button side of bar

LineData= at:$now color:TODAY width:0.1

PlotData= bar:1 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1889 till:1964 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME align:left text:Jawaharlal Nehru color:PM_INC from:1947 till:1964

bar:2 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1904 till:1966 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Lal Bahadur Shastri color:PM_INC from:1964 till:1966

bar:3 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1917 till:1984 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text: Indira Gandhi color:PM_INC from:1966 till:1977 color:PM_INC from:1980 till:1984

bar:4 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1896 till:1995 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Morarji Desai color:PM_JP from:1977 till:1979

bar:5 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1902 till:1987 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Charan Singh color:PM_JP(S) from:1979 till:1980

bar:6 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1944 till:1991 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Rajiv Gandhi color:PM_INC from:1984 till:1989

bar:7 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1931 till:2008 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:V. P. Singh color:PM_JD from:1989 till:1990

bar:8 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1927 till:2007 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Chandra Shekhar color:PM_SJP(R) from:1990 till:1991

bar:9 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1921 till:2004 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:P. V. Narasimha Rao color:PM_INC from:1991 till:1996

bar:10 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1924 till:2018 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Atal Bihari Vajpayee color:PM_BJP from:1996 till:1996.4 color:PM_BJP from:1998 till:2004

bar:11 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1933 till:$now shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:H. D. Deve Gowda color:PM_JD from:1996.4 till:1997

bar:12 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1919 till:2012 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Inder Kumar Gujral color:PM_JD from:1997 till:1998

bar:13 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1932 till:2024 shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Manmohan Singh color:PM_INC from:2004 till:2014

bar:14 width:18 color:LIFESPAN align:center fontsize:M from:1950 till:$now shift:(-0,$dy) textcolor:NAME text:Narendra Modi color:PM_BJP from:2014 till:$now

TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:red pos:($warning,30) text:Updated

TextData = pos:(250,$height) fontsize:L textcolor:black text:"Lifespan and terms of office of each prime minister of India"

List by party

No.	Political party	Number of Prime ministers
INC/INC(I)/INC(R)	7	54 years, 166 days
BJP	2	****
JD	3	2 years, 269 days
JP	1	2 years, 126 days
SJP(R)	1	223 days
JP(S)	1	170 days

Parties by total duration (in years) of holding Prime Minister's Office

Footnotes

Assassinated or died in office
Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
Resigned
Resigned following a no-confidence motion

Notes

References

Pillay, Anashri. (2019). "Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law". Cambridge University Press.
Dam, Shubhankar. (2016). "The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution". Oxford University Press.
Pillay, Anashri. (2019). "Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law". Cambridge University Press.
Majeed, Akhtar. (2005). "Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries". McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
Dam, Shubhankar. (2016). "The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution". Oxford University Press.
Singh, Nirvikar. (2018). "Markets, Governance, and Institutions: In the Process of Economic Development". Oxford University Press.
Majeed, Akhtar. (2005). "Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries". McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
Dam, Shubhankar. (2016). "The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution". Oxford University Press.
Pillay, Anashri. (2019). "Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law". Cambridge University Press.
Dam, Shubhankar. (2016). "The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution". Oxford University Press.
Majeed, Akhtar. (2005). "Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries". McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
Malhotra, Inder. (15 January 1995). "Book review: Lal Bahadur Shastri Prime Minister of India 1964-66: A Life of Truth in Politics". India Today.
Vijaykumar, Neeti. (19 January 2017). "Today in 1966: Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Minister". [[The Week (Indian magazine).
(7 April 2014). "Before Modi, there was Morarjibhai". [[Rediff.com]].
(21 December 2015). "JD-U demands Bharat Ratna to former PM Charan Singh". [[The Economic Times]].
Denyer, Simon. (2 December 2011). "In India, next generation of Gandhi dynasty". The Washington Post.
Iype, George. (3 May 2004). "What the former PMs are doing". Rediff.com.
Ghosh, Deepshikha. (16 August 2018). "Atal Bihari Vajpayee: The 3-Time PM Who Captivated India With His Oratory".
(26 September 2018). "PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi Greet Manmohan Singh On His 86th Birthday". [[Outlook (Indian magazine).
Panda, Ankit. (16 May 2014). "BJP, Modi Win Landslide Victory in Indian Elections". [[The Diplomat (magazine).
(21 October 2019). "Election Results: Total BJP Sweep, India Chooses Modi 2.0, Show Leads - 10 Points". [[NDTV]].
(5 June 2024). "PM Set For Historic 3rd Term, Calls It "Victory Of Biggest Democracy"". [[NDTV]].
(5 June 2024). "Decoding India's Elections: How Modi's Grip Loosened". [[The Diplomat (magazine).

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

prime-ministers-of-india lists-of-heads-of-government lists-of-prime-ministers-by-country lists-of-people-by-time-in-office lists-of-political-office-holders-in-india lists-relating-to-prime-ministers-of-india india-politics-related-lists

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about List of prime ministers of India — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report