List of prime ministers of India

The prime minister of India is the chief executive of the Government of India and chair of the Union Council of Ministers. Although the president of India is the constitutional, nominal, and ceremonial head of state, in practice and ordinarily, the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers. 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. 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. Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first female prime minister. 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. 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. Her second term as prime minister ended five years later on 31 October 1984, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards.

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. 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. 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. The BJP won the 2014 Indian general election, and its parliamentary leader Narendra Modi formed the first non-Congress single-party majority government. The BJP went on to win the 2019 Indian general election with a bigger margin, granting a second term for the incumbent Modi government. 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, only the second to do so after the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

List

;Key

No.: Incumbent number
Assassinated or died in office
Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
Resigned
Resigned following a no-confidence motion
Dismissed by the Head of State

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! Portrait

!style="width:15em"|Name (borndied) Constituency

!style="width:6em"| Age when assumed office

!colspan="3" |Term of office

!Election

!style="width:23em"| Concurrent ministerial positions

!colspan=2|Party

!style="width:6em"| Ministry

!style="width:10em" |Head of State

| rowspan="5" | center|frameless|134x134px

! rowspan="5" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Jawaharlal Nehru

| rowspan="5" | 57 years 274 days

| rowspan="5" style="width:8em"| 1947

| rowspan="5" style="width:8em"| 1964

| rowspan="5" style="width:6em"| 16 years 286 days

| rowspan="2"|

| rowspan="5" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| rowspan="2"|Nehru I

| rowspan="3"|

| 1951–52

| Nehru II

| 1957

| Nehru III

| 1962

| Nehru IV

| rowspan="5" |

| 100px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Gulzarilal Nanda

|

| 1964

| rowspan="4" |

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Nanda I

| frameless|123x123px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Lal Bahadur Shastri

| 59 years 251 days

| 1964

| 1966

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|Shastri

| 100px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Gulzarilal Nanda

|

| 1966

|

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Nanda II

| rowspan="8" | 125x125px

! rowspan="8" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Indira Gandhi

| rowspan="8" |

| rowspan="8" | 1966

| rowspan="8" | 1977

| rowspan="8" |

| rowspan="8" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|Indira I

| rowspan="4" | 1967

| rowspan="4" |Indira II

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="3" | 1971

| rowspan="3" | Indira III

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 129x129px

! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Morarji Desai

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1977

| rowspan="2" | 1979

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1977

| rowspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| rowspan="2" | Desai

| rowspan="3" |

| frameless|152x152px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Charan Singh

| rowspan="1" |

| rowspan="1" | 1979

| rowspan="1" | 1980

| rowspan="1" |

| align="center" style="font-size:85%" | None

| Charan

| rowspan="2" | 125x125px

! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Indira Gandhi

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1980

| rowspan="2" | 1984

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1980

| rowspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Indira IV

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | frameless|135x135px

! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Rajiv Gandhi

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1984

| rowspan="2" | 1989

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|Rajiv I

| 1984

| Rajiv II

| rowspan="4" |

| 134x134px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| V. P. Singh

| rowspan="1" |

| 1989

| 1990

| 1989

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Vishwanath

| 100px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Chandra Shekhar

| rowspan="1" |

| 1990

| 1991

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Chandra Shekhar

| rowspan="2" | 125x125px

! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| P. V. Narasimha Rao

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1991

| rowspan="2" | 1996

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1991

| rowspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| rowspan="2" | Rao

| rowspan="4" |

| frameless|139x139px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Atal Bihari Vajpayee

| rowspan="1" |

| 1996

| 1996

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| Vajpayee I

| frameless|140x140px

! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| H. D. Deve Gowda

| rowspan="1" |

| 1996

| 1997

| align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|

| Deve Gowda

| rowspan="2" | 100px

! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Inder Kumar Gujral

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1997

| rowspan="2" | 1998

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

| rowspan="2" | Gujral

| rowspan="3" |

| rowspan="3" | frameless|139x139px

! rowspan="3" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Atal Bihari Vajpayee

| rowspan="3" |

| rowspan="3" | 1998

| rowspan="3" | 2004

| rowspan="3" |

| 1998

| rowspan="3" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|

| Vajpayee II

| rowspan="2" | 1999

| rowspan="2" |Vajpayee III

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="4" | 100px

! rowspan="4" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Manmohan Singh

| rowspan="4" |

| rowspan="4" | 2004

| rowspan="4" | 2014

| rowspan="4" |

| rowspan="2" | 2004

| rowspan="4" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|

| rowspan="2" |Manmohan I

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 2009

| rowspan="2" |Manmohan II

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="5" | center|125x125px

! rowspan="5" scope="row" style="text-align:center"| Narendra Modi

| rowspan="5" |

| rowspan="5" | 2014

| rowspan="5" |

| rowspan="2" | 2014

| rowspan="5" align="left" style="font-size:85%" |

|

| rowspan="2" |Modi I

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 2019

| rowspan="2" |Modi II

| rowspan="2" |

| 2024

| Modi III

List of prime ministers by length of term

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan = "2" | Name

! rowspan = "2" colspan="2"| Party

! colspan = "2" | Length of term

! Longest continuous term

! Total years of premiership

| style="background-color:"|

| INC

| colspan="2" | 16 years, 286 days

| style="background-color:" |

| BJP

| colspan="2" |

| style="background-color:"|

| INC/INC(I)/INC(R)

| 11 years, 59 days

| 15 years, 350 days

| style="background-color:"|

| INC

| colspan="2" | 10 years, 4 days

| style="background-color:"|

| BJP

| 6 years, 64 days

| 6 years, 80 days

| rowspan="2" style="background-color:"|

| rowspan="2" | INC(I)

| colspan="2" | 5 years, 32 days

| colspan="2" | 4 years, 330 days

| style="background-color:"|

| JP

| colspan="2" | 2 years, 126 days

| style="background-color:"|

| INC

| colspan="2" | 1 year, 216 days

| rowspan="3" style="background-color:"|

| rowspan="3" | JD

| colspan="2" | 343 days

| colspan="2" | 332 days

| colspan="2" | 324 days

| style="background-color:"|

| SJP(R)

| colspan="2" | 223 days

| style="background-color:"|

| JP(S)

| colspan="2" | 170 days

| '

| style="background-color:"|

| INC

| 13 days

| 26 days

;Timeline

Lifespan of prime ministers

List by party

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"

|+Political parties by total timespan of their member holding PMO (as of )

! data-sort-type=number |

! Political party

! data-sort-type=number | Number of Prime ministers

! Total years of holding PMO

! data-sort-value="1" | 1

| INC/INC(I)/INC(R)

| data-sort-type=6 | 7

| 54 years, 166 days

! data-sort-value="2" | 2

| BJP

| data-sort-type=2 | 2

! data-sort-value="3" | 3

| JD

| data-sort-type=3 | 3

| 2 years, 269 days

! data-sort-value="4" | 4

| JP

| data-sort-type=1 | 1

| 2 years, 126 days

! data-sort-value="5" | 5

| SJP(R)

| data-sort-type=1 | 1

| 223 days

! data-sort-value="6" | 6

| JP(S)

| data-sort-type=1 | 1

| 170 days

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

Footnotes

Assassinated or died in office
Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
Resigned
Resigned following a no-confidence motion

Notes

References

External links

Prime Minister of India

List

List of prime ministers by length of term

Lifespan of prime ministers

List by party

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

See also

Footnotes

Notes

References

External links