List of prime ministers of India facts for kids

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 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. The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha. 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.

• Top left: Jawaharlal Nehru was the first and the longest-serving prime minister in Indian history.
• Top center: Indira Gandhi was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister.
• Top right: Morarji Desai was the first non-Congress prime minister.
• Bottom left: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full 5 year term and the only non-Congress prime minister to date to have served on three occasions.
• Bottom center: Manmohan Singh was the first prime minister from a minority religion.
• Bottom right: Narendra Modi is the only prime minister to be born in independent India and is the current prime minister.

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. Her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's youngest premier. Members of Nehru–Gandhi family have been prime minister for approximately 38 years.

After a general election loss, Rajiv Gandhi's five-year term ended; his former cabinet colleague, Vishwanath Pratap 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. 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. The Congress, and its United Progressive Alliance 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. Modi has served as prime minister since.

List of prime ministers of India

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

Legend

•      Interim Prime Minister

Colour key (for political coalitions/parties):

•      Indian National Congress (8)
•      Janata Dal (3)
•      Bharatiya Janata Party (2)
•      Indian National Congress (R) (1)
•      Janata Party (1)
•      Janata Party (Secular) (1)
•      Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) (1)

No.	Portrait	Name (born – died) Constituency	Term of office & mandate Duration in years and days				Other offices	Party	Government	Head of State (Tenure)
1		Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) MP for United Provinces (Constituent Assembly, 1947-1952) MP for Phulpur (1952-1964)	15 August 1947	27 May 1964	16 years, 286 days	–	List Minister of External Affairs and Commonwealth Affairs Minister of Defence (1952–1955, 1957) Minister of Finance (1958)	Indian National Congress	Nehru I	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 for Sabarkantha	27 May 1964	9 June 1964	13 days	–	List Minister of Home Affairs Minister of External Affairs Minister of Atomic Energy		Nanda I
2		Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) MP for Allahabad	9 June 1964	11 January 1966	1 year, 216 days	–	List Minister of External Affairs (1964)		Shastri
–		Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha	11 January 1966	24 January 1966	13 days	–	List Minister of Home Affairs Minister of Atomic Energy		Nanda II
3		Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha, 1966–1967) MP for Rae Bareli (1967–1977)	24 January 1966	24 March 1977	11 years, 59 days	–	List Minister of External Affairs (1967–1969) Minister of Finance (1970) Minister of Home Affairs (1970–1973) Minister of Information and Broadcasting (1971–1974) Minister of Defence (1975)		Indira I
						1967				Zakir Husain (1967–1969)
										V. V. Giri (1969)
										M. Hidayatullah (1969)
										V. V. Giri (1969–1974)
						1971		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira II
										Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974–1977)
										B. D. Jatti (1977)
4		Morarji Desai (1896–1995) MP for Surat	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 126 days	1977	List Minister of Finance (1977, 1979) Minister of Home Affairs (1978–1979)	Janata Party	Desai
										Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977–1982)
5		Charan Singh (1902–1987) MP for Baghpat	28 July 1979	14 January 1980	170 days	–	None	Janata Party (Secular)	Charan
(3)		Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Medak	14 January 1980	31 October 1984	4 years, 291 days	1980	List Minister of Defence (1980–1982) Minister of External Affairs (1984)	Indian National Congress	Indira III
										Giani Zail Singh (1982–1987)
6		Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP for Amethi	31 October 1984	2 December 1989	5 years, 32 days	–	List Minister of External Affairs (1984–1985, 1987–1988) Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Commerce (1984–1985) Minister of Environment and Forests (1984–1986) Minister of Defence (1985–1987) Minister of Finance (1987)		Rajiv
						1984				R. Venkataraman (1987–1992)
7		Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1931–2008) MP for Fatehpur	2 December 1989	10 November 1990	343 days	1989	List Minister of Defence Human Resource Development Minister of External Affairs (1989)	Janata Dal	V. P. Singh
8		Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) MP for Ballia	10 November 1990	21 June 1991	223 days	–	List Minister of External Affairs (1990)	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar
9		P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal	21 June 1991	16 May 1996	4 years, 330 days	1991	List Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers (1991–1994) Minister of External Affairs (1992–1993) Minister of Defence (1993–1996) Minister of Railways (1995–1996)	Indian National Congress	Rao
										Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992–1997)
10		Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	1996	List Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry of Textiles Minister of Commerce and Industry	Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee I
11		H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) MP for Karnataka (Rajya Sabha)	1 June 1996	21 April 1997	324 days	–	List Minister of Home Affairs (1996) Minister of Agriculture (1996) Minister of Textiles (1996) Minister of Urban Development (1996–1997)	Janata Dal (United Front)	Deve Gowda
12		Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha)	21 April 1997	19 March 1998	332 days	–	List Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Minister of External Affairs Minister of Finance (1997)		Gujral
										K. R. Narayanan (1997–2002)
(10)		Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow	19 March 1998	22 May 2004	6 years, 64 days	1998	List Minister of External Affairs (1998) Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Communications and Information Technology (1998) Minister of Non Conventional Energy Sources (1998–1999) Minister of Coal and Mines (2002) Minister of Environment and Forests (2003–2004)	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)	Vajpayee II
						1999			Vajpayee III
										A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (2002–2007)
13		Manmohan Singh (born 1932) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha)	22 May 2004	26 May 2014	10 years, 4 days	2004	List Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Minister in-charge of: Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space Minister of External Affairs (2005–2006) Minister of Finance (2008–2009, 2012) Minister of Culture (2009–2011)	Indian National Congress (UPA)	Manmohan I
										Pratibha Patil (2007–2012)
						2009			Manmohan II
										Pranab Mukherjee (2012–2017)
14		Narendra Modi (born 1950) MP for Varanasi	26 May 2014	Incumbent	10 years, 191 days	2014	List Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Minister in-charge of: Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences (2014)	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)	Modi I
										Ram Nath Kovind (2017–2022)
						2019			Modi II
										Droupadi Murmu (2022–present)

List of prime ministers by length of term

Timeline

List by party

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

See also

• 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 children of prime ministers of India
• List of prime ministers of India by previous experience
• List of heads of state and government of Indian origin
• List of nicknames of prime ministers of India