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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]
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Colour key (for political coalitions/parties):
No. | Portrait | Name (born – died) Constituency |
Term of office & mandate Duration in years and days |
Other ministerial offices held | Political party | Government | Head of State (Tenure) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Jawaharlal Nehru जवाहरलाल नेहरू (1889–1964) United Provinces (Constituency Assembly), MP for Phulpur |
15 August 1947 |
27 May 1964[†] |
– |
|
Indian National Congress | 1st ministry Nehru I |
King George VI (1947–1950) Governors-General: Lord Louis Mountbatten (1947–1948), C. Rajagopalachari (1948–1950) | |
President Rajendra Prasad (1950–1962) | ||||||||||
1951–52 | 2nd ministry Nehru II | |||||||||
1957 | 3rd ministry Nehru III | |||||||||
1962 | 4th ministry Nehru IV |
President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962–1967) | ||||||||
16 years, 286 days | ||||||||||
– | ![]() |
Gulzarilal Nanda गुलज़ारीलाल नंदा (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha |
27 May 1964 |
9 June 1964 |
– | Interim ministry Nanda I | ||||
13 days | ||||||||||
2 | ![]() |
Lal Bahadur Shastri लाल बहादुर शास्त्री (1904–1966) MP for Allahabad |
9 June 1964 |
11 January 1966[†] |
– |
|
5th ministry Shastri | |||
1 year, 216 days | ||||||||||
– | ![]() |
Gulzarilal Nanda गुलज़ारीलाल नंदा (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha |
11 January 1966 |
24 January 1966 |
– | Interim ministry Nanda II | ||||
13 days | ||||||||||
3 | ![]() |
Indira Gandhi इंदिरा गांधी (1917–1984) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha, 1966–1967) MP for Rae Bareli (1967–1977) |
24 January 1966 |
24 March 1977 |
– |
|
6th ministry Indira I | |||
1967 | President Zakir Husain (1967–1969) | |||||||||
Acting President V. V. Giri (1969) | ||||||||||
Acting President M. Hidayatullah (1969) | ||||||||||
President V. V. Giri (1969–1974) | ||||||||||
1971 | Indian National Congress (R) | 7th ministry Indira II | ||||||||
President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974–1977) | ||||||||||
Acting President B. D. Jatti (1977) | ||||||||||
11 years, 59 days | ||||||||||
4 | ![]() |
Morarji Desai मोरारजी देसाई (1896–1995) MP for Surat |
24 March 1977 |
28 July 1979[RES] |
1977 |
|
Janata Party | 8th ministry Desai | ||
President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977–1982) | ||||||||||
2 years, 126 days | ||||||||||
5 | ![]() |
Charan Singh चरण सिंह (1902–1987) MP for Baghpat |
28 July 1979 |
14 January 1980[RES] |
– | None | Janata Party (Secular) | 9th ministry Charan | ||
170 days | ||||||||||
(3) | ![]() |
Indira Gandhi इंदिरा गांधी (1917–1984) MP for Medak |
14 January 1980[§] |
31 October 1984[†] |
1980 |
|
Indian National Congress (I) | 10th ministry Indira III | ||
President Giani Zail Singh (1982–1987) | ||||||||||
4 years, 291 days | ||||||||||
6 | ![]() |
Rajiv Gandhi राजीव गांधी (1944–1991) MP for Amethi |
31 October 1984 |
2 December 1989 |
– |
|
11th ministry Rajiv | |||
1984 | President R. Venkataraman (1987–1992) | |||||||||
5 years, 32 days | ||||||||||
7 | ![]() |
Vishwanath Pratap Singh विश्वनाथ प्रताप सिंह (1931–2008) MP for Fatehpur |
2 December 1989 |
10 November 1990[NC] |
1989 | Janata Dal | 12th ministry V. P. Singh | |||
343 days | ||||||||||
8 | ![]() |
Chandra Shekhar चन्द्रशेखर (1927–2007) MP for Ballia |
10 November 1990 |
21 June 1991[RES] |
– |
|
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | 13th ministry Chandra Shekhar | ||
223 days | ||||||||||
9 | ![]() |
P. V. Narasimha Rao पी. वी. नरसिम्हा राव (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal |
21 June 1991 |
16 May 1996 |
1991 |
|
Indian National Congress (I) | 14th ministry Rao | ||
President Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992–1997) | ||||||||||
4 years, 330 days | ||||||||||
10 | ![]() |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow |
16 May 1996 |
1 June 1996[RES] |
1996 | Bharatiya Janata Party | 15th ministry Vajpayee I | |||
16 days | ||||||||||
11 | ![]() |
H. D. Deve Gowda एच. डी. देवेगौड़ा (born 1933) MP for Karnataka (Rajya Sabha) |
1 June 1996 |
21 April 1997[RES] |
– |
|
Janata Dal | 16th ministry Deve Gowda | ||
324 days | ||||||||||
12 | ![]() |
Inder Kumar Gujral इंद्र कुमार गुजराल (1919–2012) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha) |
21 April 1997 |
19 March 1998[RES] |
– | 17th ministry Gujral | ||||
President K. R. Narayanan (1997–2002) | ||||||||||
332 days | ||||||||||
(10) | ![]() |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow |
19 March 1998[§] |
22 May 2004 |
1998 |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party | 18th ministry Vajpayee II | ||
1999 | 19th ministry Vajpayee III | |||||||||
President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (2002–2007) | ||||||||||
6 years, 64 days | ||||||||||
13 | ![]() |
Manmohan Singh मनमोहन सिंह (born 1932) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha) |
22 May 2004 |
26 May 2014 |
2004 |
|
Indian National Congress (UPA) |
20th ministry Manmohan I | ||
President Pratibha Patil (2007–2012) | ||||||||||
2009 | 21st ministry Manmohan II | |||||||||
President Pranab Mukherjee (2012–2017) | ||||||||||
10 years, 4 days | ||||||||||
14 | ![]() |
Narendra Modi नरेंद्र मोदी (born 1950) MP for Varanasi |
26 May 2014 |
Incumbent | 2014 | Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) |
22nd ministry Modi I | |||
President Ram Nath Kovind (2017–2022) | ||||||||||
2019 | 23rd ministry Modi II | |||||||||
President Droupadi Murmu (2022–present) | ||||||||||
9 years, 99 days |
No. | Name | Party | Length of term | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Longest continuous term | Total years of 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 | 9 years, 99 days | 9 years, 99 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 | |
10 | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | JD | 343 days | 343 days | |
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 |
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 | 15 years, 176 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 |