List of prime

ministers of India

The prime minister of India is the chief

executive of the Government of India.[1][2]
Although the President of India is the
constitutional, nominal, and ceremonial
head of state,[3][4][5][6] in practice and
ordinarily, the executive authority is vested
in the Prime Minister and their chosen
Council of Ministers.[7][8][6] 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.[9] The prime minister and their
cabinet are at all times responsible to the
Lok Sabha.[10][11] 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.

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.[a] 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.[13] Indira Gandhi, Nehru's
daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to
become the country's first female prime
minister.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] Her second
term as prime minister ended five years
later on 31 October 1984, when she was
assassinated by her bodyguards.[14] Her
son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's
youngest premier. Members of Nehru–
Gandhi family have been prime minister
for approximately 38 years.[17]

After a general election loss, Rajiv Gandhi's

five-year term ended; his former cabinet
colleague, Vishwanath Pratap 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.[18] 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 19 months in 1998–1999.[18] In
1998, Vajpayee's National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) won the general election,
the first non-Congress alliance to do so,
and he served a full five-year term as
prime minister.[19] The Congress, and its
United Progressive Alliance won the
general elections in 2004 and 2009,
Manmohan Singh serving as prime
minister between 2004 and 2014.[20] The
BJP won the 2014 Indian general election,
and its parliamentary leader Narendra
Modi formed the first non-Congress single
party majority government. Modi has
served as prime minister since, his party
winning the 2014 Indian general
election.[21]
List of prime ministers of
India
Key
No.: Incumbent number
† Assassinated or died in office
§ Returned to office after a previous
non-consecutive term
RES Resigned
NC Resigned following a no-confidence
motion

Legend
Interim Prime Minister
 BJP (2)[b] INC/INC(I)/INC(R) [c]
(6+1 acting[d]) JD (3) JP

Name Term of office[23]

Time in
No. Portrait (birth and Constituency
Took office Left office office
death)

Constituent
Assembly
C
member for 15 August 1947 15 April 1952
A
Jawaharlal United
Provinces 16 years,
1 Nehru
286 days
(1889–1964) 15 April 1952 17 April 1957

17 April 1957 2 April 1962

Phulpur

2 April 1962 27 May 1964†

Gulzarilal
- Nanda Sabarkantha 27 May 1964 9 June 1964 13 days
(1898–1998)

Lal
Bahadur 1 year,
2 Allahabad 9 June 1964 11 January 1966†
Shastri 216 days
(1904–1966)

Gulzarilal
- Nanda Sabarkantha 11 January 1966 24 January 1966 13 days
(1898–1998)

Rajya Sabha
MP for Uttar 24 January 1966 4 March 1967
Indira Pradesh
11 years,
3 Gandhi
4 March 1967 15 March 1971 59 days
(1917–1984)
Rae Bareli
15 March 1971 24 March 1977

Morarji
2 years,
4 Desai Surat 24 March 1977 28 July 1979[RES]
126 days
(1896–1995)
 Charan
5 Singh Baghpat 28 July 1979 14 January 1980[RES] 170 days
(1902–1987)

Indira
4 years,
(3) Gandhi Medak 14 January 1980[§] 31 October 1984†
291 days
(1917–1984)

Rajiv 31 October 1984 31 December 1984

5 years,
6 Gandhi Amethi
31 December 1984 2 December 1989 32 days
(1944–1991)

Vishwanath
Pratap
7 Fatehpur 2 December 1989 10 November 1990[NC] 343 days
Singh
(1931–2008)

Chandra
8 Shekhar Ballia 10 November 1990 21 June 1991[RES] 223 days
(1927–2007)

P. V.
Narasimha 4 years,
9 Nandyal 21 June 1991 16 May 1996
Rao 330 days
(1921–2004)

Atal Bihari
10 Vajpayee Lucknow 16 May 1996 1 June 1996[RES] 16 days
(1924–2018)

H. D. Deve Rajya Sabha

11 Gowda MP for 1 June 1996 21 April 1997[RES] 324 days
(born 1933) Karnataka

Inder
Kumar Rajya Sabha
12 21 April 1997 19 March 1998[RES] 332 days
Gujral MP for Bihar
(1919–2012)
 Atal Bihari 19 March 1998[§] 13 October 1999[NC]
6 years,
(10) Vajpayee Lucknow
64 days
(1924–2018) 13 October 1999 22 May 2004

Manmohan Rajya Sabha 22 May 2004 22 May 2009

10 years,
13 Singh MP for
4 days
(born 1932) Assam 22 May 2009 26 May 2014

Narendra 26 May 2014 30 May 2019

8 years,
14 Modi Varanasi
281 days
(born 1950) 30 May 2019 Incumbent
List of prime ministers by
length of term
Length of term
No. Name Party Longest continuous Total years of
term premiership

1 Jawaharlal Nehru INC 16 years, 286 days 16 years, 286 days

2 Indira Gandhi INC/INC(I)/INC(R) 11 years, 59 days 15 years, 350 days

3 Manmohan Singh INC 10 years, 4 days 10 years, 4 days

4 Narendra Modi BJP 8 years, 281 days 8 years, 281 days

5 Atal Bihari Vajpayee BJP 6 years, 64 days 6 years, 80 days

6 Rajiv Gandhi INC(I) 5 years, 32 days 5 years, 32 days

7 P. V. Narasimha Rao INC(I) 4 years, 330 days 4 years, 330 days

8 Morarji Desai JP 2 years, 126 days 2 years, 126 days

9 Lal Bahadur Shastri INC 1 year, 216 days 1 year, 216 days

Vishwanath Pratap
10 JD 343 days 343 days
Singh

11 Inder Kumar Gujral JD 332 days 332 days

12 H. D. Deve Gowda JD 324 days 324 days

13 Chandra Shekhar SJP(R) 223 days 223 days

14 Charan Singh JP(S) 170 days 170 days

Acting Gulzarilal Nanda INC 13 days 26 days

List by party
Political parties by total timespan of their member holding PMO (22 July 2022)
No. Political party Number of Prime ministers Total years of holding PMO

1 INC/INC(I)/INC(R) 6 (+1 acting) 54 years, 123 days

2 BJP 2 14 years, 358 days

3 JD 3 2 years, 269 days

4 JP 1 2 years, 126 days

5 SJP(R) 1 223 days

6 JP(S) 1 170 days

Parties by total duration (in

years) of holding Prime
Minister's Office
60
50
40
30
20
10
INC BJP JD JP JP(S)
INC/INC(I)/INC(R)
 BJP )
JD
JP
JP(S)
SJP(R)

See also
India
portal

President of India
Vice President of India
List of presidents of India
List of vice presidents of India
List of deputy prime ministers of India
 List of children of prime ministers of
India
List of prime ministers of India by
previous experience
List of heads of state and government
of Indian origin
List of nicknames of prime ministers of
India

Footnotes
† Assassinated or died in office
§ Returned to office after a previous non-
consecutive term
RES Resigned
 NC Resigned following a no-confidence
motion

Notes
a. 15 including Gulzarilal Nanda who twice
acted in the role, of which 6 having at least
one full term, ruling country for about 60
years.[12]
b. In office
c. Known as Indian National Congress (R)
between 1969–1978 and Indian National
Congress (I) between 1978–96.[22]
d. Gulzarilal Nanda twice appointed as acting
Prime minister of India following deaths of
two prime ministers.
 e. Although the prime minister can be a
member of either house of the Parliament,
they have to command the confidence of
the Lok Sabha. Upon dissolution of the Lok
Sabha, the outgoing PM remains in office
until their successor is sworn in.
f. The Constituent Assembly of India
consisted of 389 members elected in 1946
by the provincial assemblies by a single,
transferable-vote system of proportional
representation. The Assembly was replaced
by the Provisional Parliament of India after
adoption of the Constitution on 26 January
1950 until the first general elections.

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Prime Minister of India (https://www.pm
india.gov.in/en/)

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