Deputy Prime Minister of India
Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri
State Emblem of India
Flag of India
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; 74 years ago (1947-08-15)
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.

List

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

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)

Statistics

List of deputy prime ministers by length of term

Timeline

List by party

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

Living former deputy prime ministers

As of 11 August 2022, there is only one living former deputy prime minister of India, in order of service, are:

Lal Krishna Advani
(2002–2004)
(1927-11-08) 8 November 1927 (age 94)

The most recent death of a former deputy prime minister was that of Chaudhary Devi Lal on 6 April 2001, aged 86.