List of Prime Ministers of India

Narendra Modi is the current (14th) Prime Minister of India, since 26 May 2014.

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

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[†]
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[†]
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
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]
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[†]
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
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
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
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
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 2 years, 195 days 2014 (16th) Modi Pranab Mukherjee

See also

References

  1. "Indian National Congress". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  2. "Former Prime Ministers". PM India. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  3. "Narendra Modi appointed Prime Minister, swearing in on May 26". The Times of India. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
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