Theprime minister of India is the chief executive of theGovernment of India and chair of theUnion Council of Ministers.[1][2] Although thepresident 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 theIndian parliament, theLok Sabha, which is the main legislative body in theRepublic 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 theRajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament. The prime minister ranks third in theorder of precedence.
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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 aredirectly electedevery 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 perArticle 75(3), assists the president regarding the operations under the latter's powers; however, by the virtue ofArticle 74 of theConstitution, such 'aid and advice' tendered by the council isbinding.
Since 1947, India has had 14 prime ministers.[a]Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister, serving as prime minister of theDominion 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 theInterim Government of India during theBritish Raj from 2 September 1946 until 14 August 1947, his party, the Indian National Congress having won the1946 Indian provincial elections. Nehru was succeeded byLal Bahadur Shastri, whose 1 year 7-month term ended in his death inTashkent, then in theUSSR, where he had signed theTashkent Declaration between India and Pakistan.[12]Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first female prime minister.[13] Eleven years later, her party, theIndian National Congress, lost the1977 Indian general election to theJanata Party, whose leaderMorarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister.[14] After Desai resigned in 1979, his former associateCharan Singh briefly held office until the Congress won the1980 Indian general election and Indira Gandhi returned as prime minister.[15] Her second term as prime minister ended five years later on 31 October 1984, when she wasassassinated by her bodyguards.[13] Her sonRajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's youngest premier. Members ofNehru–Gandhi family have been prime minister for approximately 38 years.[16]
After a general election loss, Rajiv Gandhi's five-year term ended; his former cabinet colleague,V. P. Singh of theJanata Dal, formed the year-longNational Front coalition government in 1989. A seven-month interlude under prime ministerChandra Shekhar followed, after which the Congress party returned to power, forming the government underP. V. Narasimha Rao in June 1991, Rajiv Gandhi having been assassinated earlier that year.[17] Rao's five-year term was succeeded by four short-lived governments—Atal Bihari Vajpayee from theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for 13 days in 1996, a year each underUnited Front prime ministersH. D. Deve Gowda andInder Kumar Gujral, and Vajpayee again for 13 months in 1998–1999.[17] In 1999, Vajpayee'sNational 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.[18] The Congress and itsUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the general elections in 2004 and 2009,Manmohan Singh serving as prime minister between 2004 and 2014.[19] The BJP won the2014 Indian general election, and its parliamentary leaderNarendra Modi formed the first non-Congress single-party majority government.[20] The BJP went on to win the2019 Indian general election with a bigger margin, granting asecond term for the incumbent Modi government.[21] After the2024 Indian general election, Modi became the prime minister for thethird 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.[22][23]
| Portrait | Name (born – died) Constituency | Age when assumed office | Term of office Duration in years and days | Election | Concurrent ministerial positions | Party | Ministry | Head of State (Tenure) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) MP forUnited Provinces (1947–1952) andPhulpur | 57 years 274 days | 15 August 1947 | 27 May 1964[†] | 16 years 286 days | – |
| Indian National Congress | Nehru I | King George VI (1947–1950) | |
| Rajendra Prasad (1950–1962) | |||||||||||
| 1951–52 | Nehru II | ||||||||||
| 1957 | Nehru III | ||||||||||
| 1962 | Nehru IV | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962–1967) | |||||||||
 | Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP forSabarkantha | 65 years, 328 days | 27 May 1964 | 9 June 1964[DIS] | 13 days | – | Nanda I | ||||
.jpg) | Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) MP forAllahabad | 59 years 251 days | 9 June 1964 | 11 January 1966[†] | 1 year, 216 days | – |
| Shastri | |||
| Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP forSabarkantha | 67 years, 191 days | 11 January 1966 | 24 January 1966[DIS] | 13 days | – | Nanda II | ||||
| Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP forUttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha, 1966–1967) MP forRae Bareli (1967–1977) | 48 years, 66 days | 24 January 1966 | 24 March 1977[DIS] | 11 years, 59 days | – |
| Indira I | |||
| 1967 | Indira II | Zakir Husain (1967–1969) | |||||||||
| V. V. Giri (1969) (Acting) | |||||||||||
| M. Hidayatullah (1969) (Acting) | |||||||||||
| V. V. Giri (1969–1974) | |||||||||||
| 1971 | Indian National Congress (R) | Indira III | |||||||||
| Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974–1977) | |||||||||||
| B. D. Jatti (1977) (Acting)' | |||||||||||
.jpg) | Morarji Desai (1896–1995) MP forSurat | 81 years, 24 days | 24 March 1977 | 28 July 1979[RES] | 2 years, 126 days | 1977 |
| Janata Party | Desai | ||
| Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977–1982) | |||||||||||
 | Charan Singh (1902–1987) MP forBaghpat | 76 years, 217 days | 28 July 1979 | 14 January 1980[RES] | 170 days | – | None | Janata Party (Secular) | Charan | ||
| Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP forMedak | 62 years, 56 days | 14 January 1980[§] | 31 October 1984[†] | 4 years, 291 days | 1980 |
| Indian National Congress (I) | Indira IV | ||
| Giani Zail Singh (1982-1987) | |||||||||||
.jpg) | Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP forAmethi | 40 years, 72 days | 31 October 1984 | 2 December 1989[DIS] | 5 years, 32 days | – |
| Rajiv I | |||
| 1984 | Rajiv II | Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987–1992) | |||||||||
.jpg) | V. P. Singh (1931–2008) MP forFatehpur | 58 years, 160 days | 2 December 1989 | 10 November 1990[NC] | 343 days | 1989 | Janata Dal | Vishwanath | |||
 | Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) MP forBallia | 63 years, 207 days | 10 November 1990 | 21 June 1991[RES] | 223 days | – |
| Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | Chandra Shekhar | ||
(2).jpg) | P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP forNandyal | 69 years, 358 days | 21 June 1991 | 16 May 1996[DIS] | 4 years, 330 days | 1991 |
| Indian National Congress (I) | Rao | ||
| Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992–1997) | |||||||||||
 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP forLucknow | 71 years, 143 days | 16 May 1996 | 1 June 1996[RES] | 16 days | 1996 | Bharatiya Janata Party | Vajpayee I | |||
 | H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) MP forKarnataka(Rajya Sabha) | 63 years, 14 days | 1 June 1996 | 21 April 1997[RES] | 324 days | – |
| Janata Dal (United Front) | Deve Gowda | ||
 | Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012) MP forBihar(Rajya Sabha) | 77 years, 138 days | 21 April 1997 | 19 March 1998[RES] | 332 days | – | Gujral | ||||
| K. R. Narayanan (1997–2002) | |||||||||||
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP forLucknow | 73 years, 84 days | 19 March 1998[§] | 22 May 2004[DIS] | 6 years, 64 days | 1998 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance) | Vajpayee II | ||
| 1999 | Vajpayee III | ||||||||||
| A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (2002–2007) | |||||||||||
| Manmohan Singh (1932–2024) MP forAssam(Rajya Sabha) | 71 years, 239 days | 22 May 2004 | 26 May 2014[DIS] | 10 years, 4 days | 2004 |
| Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance) | Manmohan I | ||
| Pratibha Patil (2007–2012) | |||||||||||
| 2009 | Manmohan II | ||||||||||
| Pranab Mukherjee (2012–2017) | |||||||||||
.jpg) | Narendra Modi (born 1950) MP forVaranasi | 63 years, 251 days | 26 May 2014 | Incumbent | 11 years, 182 days | 2014 | Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance) | Modi I | |||
| Ram Nath Kovind (2017–2022) | |||||||||||
| 2019 | Modi II | ||||||||||
| Droupadi Murmu (2022–present) | |||||||||||
| 2024 | Modi III | ||||||||||
| Name | Party | Length of term | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longest continuous term | Total years of premiership | ||||
| Jawaharlal Nehru | INC | 16 years, 286 days | 16 years, 286 days | ||
| Indira Gandhi | INC/INC(I)/INC(R) | 11 years, 59 days | 15 years, 350 days | ||
| Narendra Modi | BJP | 11 years, 182 days | 11 years, 182 days | ||
| Manmohan Singh | INC | 10 years, 4 days | 10 years, 4 days | ||
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | BJP | 6 years, 64 days | 6 years, 80 days | ||
| Rajiv Gandhi | INC(I) | 5 years, 32 days | 5 years, 32 days | ||
| P. V. Narasimha Rao | INC(I) | 4 years, 330 days | 4 years, 330 days | ||
| Morarji Desai | JP | 2 years, 126 days | 2 years, 126 days | ||
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | INC | 1 year, 216 days | 1 year, 216 days | ||
| V. P. Singh | JD | 343 days | 343 days | ||
| Inder Kumar Gujral | JD | 332 days | 332 days | ||
| H. D. Deve Gowda | JD | 324 days | 324 days | ||
| Chandra Shekhar | SJP(R) | 223 days | 223 days | ||
| Charan Singh | JP(S) | 170 days | 170 days | ||
| 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) | 7[b] | 54 years, 166 days |
| 2 | BJP | 2 | 17 years, 262 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 |
The head of government is the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister is the head of government.
An elected President is the nominal head of state but exercises little power.
...The president is the constitutional head. (p. 185)
The President is the head of the Union of India
...the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and in their Council of Ministers. (p. 185)
Executive power, ordinarily, is exercised by Prime Minister.
... Like the British system, there are two houses of parliament – the Lok Sabha, which has 545 members, is the main legislative body. In practice, it is the party with a majority in the Lok Sabha which elects its leader as the Prime Minister.
Along with his or her cabinet, the Prime Minister is responsible to the Lower House of Parliament.
...Both for the Union and the states, a "cabinet-type" system of parliamentary government has been instituted in which the executive is continuously responsible to the legislature. (p. 185)
| Prime ministers | |
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| Acting | |
