List of Prime Ministers of India
The Prime Minister of India is the chief executive of the Government of India. In India's parliamentary system, the Constitution names the President as head of state de jure, but his de facto executive powers are vested in the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. Appointed and sworn-in by the President, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the party or alliance that has a majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament.
Since 1947, India has had fourteen Prime Ministers, fifteen including Gulzarilal Nanda who twice acted in the role. The first was Jawaharlal Nehru of the Indian National Congress party, who was sworn-in on 15 August 1947, when India gained independence from the British. Serving until his death in May 1964, Nehru remains India's longest-serving prime minister. He was succeeded by fellow Congressman Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose 19-month term also ended in death. Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first woman premier. Eleven years later, she was voted out of power in favour of the Janata Party, whose leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister. After he resigned in 1979, his former deputy Charan Singh briefly held office until Indira Gandhi was voted back in six months later. Indira Gandhi's second stint as Prime Minister ended five years later on the morning of 31 October 1984, when she was gunned down by her own bodyguards. That evening, her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn-in as India's youngest premier, and the third from his family.
Rajiv's five-year term ended with his former cabinet colleague, V. P. Singh of the Janata Dal, forming the year-long National Front coalition government in 1989. A six-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. Rao's five-year term was succeeded by four short-lived governments—the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Bihari Vajpayee for 13 days in 1996, a year each under United Front prime ministers H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral, and Vajpayee again for 19 months in 1998–99. After Vajpayee was sworn-in for the third time, in 1999, he managed to lead his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to a full five-year term, the first non-Congressman to do so. Vajpayee was succeeded by Congressman Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh premier, whose United Progressive Alliance government was in office for 10 years between 2004 and 2014.
The incumbent Prime Minister of India is Narendra Modi who has headed the BJP-led NDA government since 26 May 2014.
Key
- Colour key for party of the prime minister
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- Other key
- №: Incumbent number
- † Assassinated or died in office
- § Returned to office after a previous term
- RES Resigned
- NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion
|
Prime Ministers of India
№ |
Name (birth–death); constituency |
Portrait |
Party (Alliance) |
Term of office[2] |
Elections (Lok Sabha) |
Council of Ministers |
Appointed by |
1 |
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) MP for Phulpur |
|
Indian National Congress |
15 August 1947 |
27 May 1964[†] |
7008529632000000000♠16 years, 286 days |
— |
Nehru I |
Lord Mountbatten |
1952 (1st) |
Nehru II |
Rajendra Prasad |
1957 (2nd) |
Nehru III |
1962 (3rd) |
Nehru IV |
– |
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha |
|
Indian National Congress |
27 May 1964 |
9 June 1964 |
13 days |
– (3rd) |
(acting) |
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
2 |
Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) MP for Allahabad |
|
Indian National Congress |
9 June 1964 |
11 January 1966[†] |
7007502200000000000♠1 year, 216 days |
– (3rd) |
Shastri |
– |
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha |
|
Indian National Congress |
11 January 1966 |
24 January 1966 |
13 days |
– (3rd) |
(acting) |
3 |
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Rae Bareli |
|
Indian National Congress |
24 January 1966 |
24 March 1977 |
7008352231200000000♠11 years, 59 days |
– (3rd) |
I. Gandhi I |
1967 (4th) |
1971 (5th) |
I. Gandhi II |
V. V. Giri |
4 |
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) MP for Surat |
|
Janata Party |
24 March 1977 |
28 July 1979[RES] |
7007740016000000000♠2 years, 126 days |
1977 (6th) |
Desai |
B. D. Jatti |
5 |
Charan Singh (1902–1987) MP for Baghpat |
|
Janata Party (Secular) with INC |
28 July 1979 |
14 January 1980[RES] |
170 days |
– (6th) |
C. Singh |
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy |
(3) |
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Medak |
|
Indian National Congress (I) |
14 January 1980[§] |
31 October 1984[†] |
7008151372800000000♠4 years, 291 days |
1980 (7th) |
I. Gandhi III |
6 |
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP for Amethi |
|
Indian National Congress (I) |
31 October 1984 |
2 December 1989 |
7008160552800000000♠5 years, 32 days |
– (7th) |
R. Gandhi |
Zail Singh |
1984 (8th) |
7 |
V. P. Singh (1931–2008) MP for Fatehpur |
|
Janata Dal (National Front) |
2 December 1989 |
10 November 1990[NC] |
343 days |
1989 (9th) |
V. P. Singh |
R. Venkataraman |
8 |
Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) MP for Ballia |
|
Samajwadi Janata Party with INC |
10 November 1990 |
21 June 1991 |
223 days |
– (9th) |
Chandra Shekhar |
9 |
P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal |
|
Indian National Congress (I) |
21 June 1991 |
16 May 1996 |
7008154742400000000♠4 years, 330 days |
1991 (10th) |
Rao |
10 |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924) MP for Lucknow |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party |
16 May 1996 |
1 June 1996[RES] |
16 days |
1996 (11th) |
Vajpayee I |
Shankar Dayal Sharma |
11 |
H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Karnataka |
|
Janata Dal (United Front) |
1 June 1996 |
21 April 1997[RES] |
324 days |
– (11th) |
Deve Gowda |
12 |
Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Bihar |
|
Janata Dal (United Front) |
21 April 1997 |
19 March 1998 |
332 days |
– (11th) |
Gujral |
(10) |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924) MP for Lucknow |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) |
19 March 1998[§] |
22 May 2004 |
7008194875200000000♠6 years, 64 days |
1998 (12th) |
Vajpayee II |
K. R. Narayanan |
1999 (13th) |
Vajpayee III |
13 |
Manmohan Singh (born 1932) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Assam |
|
Indian National Congress (UPA) |
22 May 2004 |
26 May 2014 |
7008315921600000000♠10 years, 4 days |
2004 (14th) |
M. Singh I |
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
2009 (15th) |
M. Singh II |
Pratibha Patil Pranab Mukherjee |
14 |
Narendra Modi (born 1950) MP for Varanasi |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) |
26 May 2014[3] |
Incumbent |
7007799632000000000♠2 years, 195 days |
2014 (16th) |
Modi |
Pranab Mukherjee |
See also
References
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Lists of Prime Ministers by country
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