Deputy Prime Minister of India | |
---|---|
Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri | |
Incumbent Vacant since 23 May 2004 | |
Government of India | |
Style | His/Her Excellency |
Type | Deputy prime minister |
Status | 2nd highest in executive branch |
Member of | Parliament of India Union Council of Ministers |
Reports to | Prime Minister of India |
Nominator | Prime Minister |
Appointer | President of India |
Formation | 15 August 1947 |
First holder | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
The deputy prime minister of India (IAST: Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri), officially the deputy prime minister of the Republic of India, is the second highest ranking minister of the Union in the executive branch of the Government of India and is a senior member of the Union Council of Ministers. The office holder also deputises for the prime minister in their absence.
The office has since been only intermittently occupied, having been occupied for a little more than 10 years out of the 73 years since its inception. Since 1947 India has had 7 deputy prime ministers, of which none having at least one full term. The first was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel of the Indian National Congress party, who was sworn in on 15 August 1947, when India gained independence from the British Raj. Serving until his death in December 1950, Patel remains India's longest-serving deputy prime minister. The post was vacant until Morarji Desai became the second deputy prime minister in 1967 and has the second-longest tenure. Morarji Desai and Chaudhary Charan Singh were the deputy prime ministers who later became Prime Minister of India. Babu Jagjivan Ram and Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan became deputy prime ministers consecutively without the break in different ministries. Chaudhary Devi Lal is the only deputy prime minister to represent both parties in the same post. Lal Krishna Advani was the seventh and last person to serve as the deputy prime minister of India until the post became vacant.
The current government does not have a deputy prime minister and the post has been vacant since 23 May 2004.
BJP (1) INC (2) INC(U) (1) JD (1) JP (2) SJP(R) (1) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Portrait | Name
(Birth–Death) |
Elected Constituency | Political Party[a] | Term of office[1] | Prime Minister | Appointed by | ||||
1 | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950) |
Did not contest | Indian National Congress | 15 August 1947 | 15 December 1950[†] | 3 years, 122 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Louis Mountbatten | |||
Vacant (16 December 1950 – 12 March 1967) | |||||||||||
2 | Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (1896–1995) |
Surat | Indian National Congress | 13 March 1967 | 19 July 1969[RES] | 2 years, 128 days | Indira Gandhi | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | |||
Vacant (20 July 1969 – 23 January 1979) | |||||||||||
3 | Chaudhary Charan Singh (1902–1987) |
Baghpat | Janata Party | 24 January 1979 | 16 July 1979[RES] | 173 days | Morarji Desai | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | |||
4 | Babu Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) |
Sasaram | Janata Party | 24 January 1979 | 28 July 1979[RES] | 185 days | |||||
5 | Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan (1913–1984) |
Satara | Indian National Congress (U) | 28 July 1979 | 14 January 1980 | 170 days | Charan Singh | ||||
Vacant (15 January 1980 – 1 December 1989) | |||||||||||
6 | Chaudhary Devi Lal (1915–2001) |
Rohtak and Sikar |
Janata Dal | 2 December 1989 | 1 August 1990 | 242 days | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | R. Venkataraman | |||
Vacant (2 August 1990 – 9 November 1990) | |||||||||||
(6) | Chaudhary Devi Lal (1915–2001) |
Rohtak and Sikar |
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | 10 November 1990 | 21 June 1991 | 223 days | Chandra Shekhar | R. Venkataraman | |||
Vacant (22 June 1991 – 28 June 2002) | |||||||||||
7 | Lal Krishna Advani (1927–) |
Gandhinagar | Bharatiya Janata Party | 29 June 2002 | 22 May 2004 | 1 year, 328 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | K. R. Narayanan | |||
Vacant (Since 23 May 2004) |
No. | Name | Party | Length of term | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Longest continuous term | Total years of deputy premiership | |||
1 | Vallabhbhai Patel | INC | 3 years, 122 days | 3 years, 122 days |
2 | Morarji Desai | INC | 2 years, 128 days | 2 years, 128 days |
3 | Lal Krishna Advani | BJP | 1 year, 328 days | 1 year, 328 days |
4 | Devi Lal | JD/SJP(R) | 242 days | 1 year, 100 days |
5 | Jagjivan Ram | JP | 185 days | 185 days |
6 | Charan Singh | JP | 173 days | 173 days |
7 | Yashwantrao Chavan | INC(U) | 170 days | 170 days |
No. | Political party | Number of Deputy prime ministers | Total days of holding DPMO |
---|---|---|---|
1 | INC | 2 | 2077 days |
2 | BJP | 1 | 693 days |
3 | JP | 2 | 358 days |
4 | JD | 1 | 242 days |
5 | SJP(R) | 1 | 223 days |
6 | INC(U) | 1 | 170 days |
As of 11 August 2022, there is only one living former deputy prime minister of India, in order of service, are:
The most recent death of a former deputy prime minister was that of Chaudhary Devi Lal on 6 April 2001, aged 86.