Template:Politics of India
The prime minister of India is the chief executive of the Government of India and chair of the Union Council of Ministers.[1][2] Although the president of India is the constitutional, nominal, and ceremonial head of state,[1][3][4][5] in practice and ordinarily, the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers.[6][7][5] 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.[1] The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.[8][9] 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.
India has had 14 prime ministers.Template:Efn Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister. Beginning from 1946, Nehru secured a major victory in 1946 Indian Constituent Assembly election and served as prime minister of the Interim Government of India during the British Raj from 2 September 1946 until 14 August 1947. Earlier, his party Indian National Congress, won the 1946 Indian provincial elections. He served as the 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. 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.[10] Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first female prime minister.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] Her second term as prime minister ended five years later on 31 October 1984, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards.[11] Her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's youngest premier. Members of the [[NehruTemplate:EndashGandhi family]] have been prime minister for approximately 38 years.[14]
After a general election loss, Rajiv Gandhi's five-year term ended; his former cabinet colleague, V. P. 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.[15] 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 13 months in 1998–1999.[15] In 1999, 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.[16] The Congress and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the general elections in 2004 and 2009, Manmohan Singh serving as prime minister between 2004 and 2014.[17] The BJP won the 2014 Indian general election, and its parliamentary leader Narendra Modi formed the first non-Congress single-party majority government.[18] The BJP went on to win the 2019 Indian general election with a bigger margin, granting a second term for the incumbent Modi government.[19] After the 2024 Indian general election, Modi became the prime minister for the third consecutive time, leading a coalition government after the BJP lost its majority.[20][21] On 10 June 2026, Modi surpassed Jawaharlal Nehru's record of 4,398 days to officially become the longest-serving continuously elected prime minister in India's history.[22]
List of Prime Ministers of India
Template:Clear;Key
- No.: Incumbent number
- – : Acting Prime Minister
- Template:Note label Assassinated or died in office
- Template:Note label Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
- Template:Note label Resigned mid-term
- Template:Note label Resigned following a no-confidence motion
- Template:Note label Dismissed by the Head of State
- Parties
Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2
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List of prime ministers by length of term
Lifespan of prime ministers
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Statistics by party
| Template:Tooltip | Political party | Number of prime ministers | Total years of holding the PMO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INC/INC(I)/INC(R) | 7Template:Efn | 54 years, 123 days |
| 2 | BJP | 2 | Template:Age in years and 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 |
Parties by total duration (in years) of holding Prime Minister's Office
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See also
- Nehru–Gandhi family
- Prime minister of India
- President of India
- Vice President of India
- List of presidents of India
- List of vice presidents of India
- List of deputy prime ministers of India
- List of prime ministers of India by previous experience
- List of heads of state and government of Indian origin
Footnotes
- Template:Note label Assassinated or died in office
- Template:Note label Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
- Template:Note label Resigned
- Template:Note label Resigned following a no-confidence motion
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 [{{{url}}} Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law]. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution]. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries]. McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution]. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 [{{{url}}} Markets, Governance, and Institutions: In the Process of Economic Development]. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries]. McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution]. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution]. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ [{{{url}}} Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries]. McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies.
- ↑ Book review: Lal Bahadur Shastri Prime Minister of India 1964-66: A Life of Truth in Politics. India Today(15 January 1995). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Today in 1966: Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Minister. The Week(19 January 2017). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ Before Modi, there was Morarjibhai. Rediff.com(7 April 2014). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ JD-U demands Bharat Ratna to former PM Charan Singh. The Economic Times(21 December 2015). Retrieved 4 February 2018.
- ↑ In India, next generation of Gandhi dynasty. The Washington Post(2 December 2011). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 What the former PMs are doing, Iype, George(3 May 2004). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ Atal Bihari Vajpayee: The 3-Time PM Who Captivated India With His Oratory. NDTV(16 August 2018). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi Greet Manmohan Singh On His 86th Birthday. Outlook(26 September 2018). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ BJP, Modi Win Landslide Victory in Indian Elections(16 May 2014). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ↑ Election Results: Total BJP Sweep, India Chooses Modi 2.0, Show Leads - 10 Points(21 October 2019). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
- ↑ PM Set For Historic 3rd Term, Calls It "Victory Of Biggest Democracy"(5 June 2024). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
- ↑ Decoding India's Elections: How Modi's Grip Loosened(5 June 2024). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
- ↑ Modi surpasses Nehru as longest-serving elected PM: Tracing the road to 4,399 days. The Times of India(10 June 2026). Retrieved 11 June 2026.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 Former Prime Ministers of India Portfolio. Archive PMO India. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 Prime Ministers of India Profiles. Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Former Prime Ministers Chronology. Prime Minister's Office (PM India). Retrieved 10 June 2026.
External links
Template:Prime ministers of India Template:Indian federal ministries Template:Lists of prime ministers Template:Union ministries of India