List of prime ministers of India facts for kids
The prime minister of India is the main leader of the Government of India. They are like the chief manager of the country. While the president of India is the official head of state, the prime minister and their team (called the Council of Ministers) hold most of the power.
The prime minister is usually the leader of the political party that wins the most seats in the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha is the main law-making body in India. The prime minister and their cabinet are always answerable to the Lok Sabha. A prime minister can be a member of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, which is the upper house of parliament.
- Top left: Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first and longest-serving prime minister.
- Top centre: Indira Gandhi was the first and only woman prime minister.
- Top right: Charan Singh was the only prime minister who never faced parliament.
- Bottom left: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full 5-year term.
- Bottom centre: Manmohan Singh was the first prime minister from a minority religion.
- Bottom right: Narendra Modi is the only prime minister born in independent India. He is also the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister.
The president of India chooses the prime minister. However, the prime minister must have the support of most members in the Lok Sabha. These members are chosen by people in elections held every five years.
The prime minister leads the Council of Ministers. They decide who joins the council and what jobs they get. This council helps the president with their duties. Their advice is very important and must be followed.
Contents
India's Prime Ministers: A Journey Through Time
Since 1947, India has had 14 prime ministers. Each one has played a big part in shaping the country.
The First Leaders
Jawaharlal Nehru was India's very first prime minister. He started serving on August 15, 1947, when India became independent. He led the country until he passed away in May 1964. Nehru was prime minister for a long time, over 16 years.
After Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri became prime minister. His term was short, lasting about one year and seven months. He passed away in Tashkent after signing an important agreement.
India's First Woman Prime Minister
In 1966, Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, became India's first woman prime minister. She led the country for many years. In 1977, her party, the Indian National Congress, lost the election.
Morarji Desai then became the first prime minister who was not from the Congress party. He resigned in 1979. After him, Charan Singh briefly held the office.
Indira Gandhi returned as prime minister in 1980. Her second term ended in 1984 when she was sadly assassinated.
Younger Leaders and New Parties
Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi, became India's youngest prime minister after her. Members of the Nehru–Gandhi family have served as prime minister for about 38 years in total.
After Rajiv Gandhi's term, Vishwanath Pratap Singh formed a government in 1989. Then, Chandra Shekhar served for a short time.
In 1991, P. V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister. His five-year term was followed by a time of quick changes.
Short Terms and a Full Term
Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) served for only 13 days in 1996. Then, H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral each served for about a year.
Vajpayee returned as prime minister in 1998. In 1999, his party alliance won the election. He then became the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full five-year term.
Recent Prime Ministers
From 2004 to 2014, Manmohan Singh served as prime minister. He was from the Congress party.
In 2014, the BJP won the election. Narendra Modi became prime minister. His party won again in 2019, giving him a second term. After the 2024 election, Modi became prime minister for a third time. He now leads a government with other parties, as the BJP did not win enough seats on its own.
List of Prime Ministers of India
This table shows the leaders who have served as prime minister of India.
- Key
- No.: The number of the prime minister
- Assassinated or died in office
- Returned to office after serving before
- Resigned (stepped down)
- Resigned after a no-confidence motion (parliament no longer supported them)
- Dismissed by the Head of State (President)
| Portrait | Name (born – died) Constituency |
Age when assumed office | Term of office & elections Duration in years and days |
Concurrent ministerial positions | Party | Government | Head of State (Tenure) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) MP for United Provinces (Constituent Assembly, 1947-1952) MP for Phulpur (1952-1964) |
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 for Sabarkantha |
65 years, 328 days | 27 May 1964 |
9 June 1964 |
13 days | – |
|
Nanda I | |||
.jpg) |
Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) MP for Allahabad |
59 years
251 days |
9 June 1964 |
11 January 1966 |
1 year, 216 days | – |
|
Shastri | |||
|
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha |
67 years, 191 days | 11 January 1966 |
24 January 1966 |
13 days | – |
|
Nanda II | |||
 |
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Uttar Pradesh (Rajya Sabha, 1966–1967) MP for Rae Bareli (1967–1977) |
48 years, 66 days | 24 January 1966 |
24 March 1977 |
11 years, 59 days | – |
|
Indira I | |||
| 1967 | Indira II | Zakir Husain (1967–1969) |
|||||||||
| V. V. Giri (1969) (Acting) |
|||||||||||
| Mohammad Hidayatullah (1969) (Acting) |
|||||||||||
| V. V. Giri (1969–1974) |
|||||||||||
| 1971 | Indian National Congress | Indira III | |||||||||
| Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974–1977) |
|||||||||||
| B. D. Jatti (1977) (Acting) |
|||||||||||
.jpg) |
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) MP for Surat |
81 years, 24 days | 24 March 1977 |
28 July 1979 |
2 years, 126 days | 1977 |
|
Janata Party | Desai | ||
| Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977–1982) |
|||||||||||
 |
Charan Singh (1902–1987) MP for Baghpat |
76 years, 217 days | 28 July 1979 |
14 January 1980 |
170 days | – | None | Janata Party | Charan | ||
|
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) MP for Medak |
62 years, 56 days | 14 January 1980 |
31 October 1984 |
4 years, 291 days | 1980 |
|
Indian National Congress | Indira IV | ||
| Giani Zail Singh (1982-1987) | |||||||||||
 |
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) MP for Amethi |
40 years, 72 days | 31 October 1984 |
2 December 1989 |
5 years, 32 days | – |
|
Rajiv I | |||
| 1984 | Rajiv II | Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987–1992) |
|||||||||
.jpg) |
Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1931–2008) MP for Fatehpur |
58 years, 160 days | 2 December 1989 |
10 November 1990 |
343 days | 1989 |
|
Janata Dal | Vishwanath | ||
 |
Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) MP for Ballia |
63 years, 207 days | 10 November 1990 |
21 June 1991 |
223 days | – |
|
Samajwadi Janata Party | Chandra Shekhar | ||
(2).jpg) |
P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal |
69 years, 358 days | 21 June 1991 |
16 May 1996 |
4 years, 330 days | 1991 |
|
Indian National Congress | Rao | ||
| Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992–1997) |
|||||||||||
.jpg) |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow |
71 years, 143 days | 16 May 1996 |
1 June 1996 |
16 days | 1996 |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party | Vajpayee I | ||
 |
H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) MP for Karnataka (Rajya Sabha) |
63 years, 14 days | 1 June 1996 |
21 April 1997 |
324 days | – |
|
Janata Dal (United Front) |
Deve Gowda | ||
 |
Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012) MP for Bihar (Rajya Sabha) |
77 years, 138 days | 21 April 1997 |
19 March 1998 |
332 days | – |
|
Gujral | |||
| K. R. Narayanan (1997–2002) |
|||||||||||
|
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) MP for Lucknow |
73 years, 84 days | 19 March 1998 |
22 May 2004 |
6 years, 64 days | 1998 |
|
Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance) |
Vajpayee II | ||
| 1999 | Vajpayee III | ||||||||||
| A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (2002–2007) |
|||||||||||
.jpg) |
Manmohan Singh (1932–2024) MP for Assam (Rajya Sabha) |
71 years, 239 days | 22 May 2004 |
26 May 2014 |
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 for Varanasi |
63 years, 251 days | 26 May 2014 |
Incumbent | 11 years, 65 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 | ||||||||||
Prime Ministers by Time in Office
This table shows how long each prime minister has served.
| 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, 65 days | 11 years, 65 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 | ||
| Vishwanath Pratap 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 | ||
Timeline of Prime Ministers
Political Parties and Prime Ministers
This section shows which political parties have held the Prime Minister's Office and for how long.
Fraction of time of holding PMO by party (as of August 2025) Indian National Congress (69.81%) Bharatiya Janata Party (22.17%) Janata Dal (3.50%) Janata Party (3.06%) Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) (0.78%) Janata Party (Secular) (0.59%)
| No. | Political party | Number of Prime ministers | Total years of holding PMO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INC/INC(I)/INC(R) | 7 | 54 years, 166 days |
| 2 | BJP | 2 | 17 years, 145 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 |
How Long Each Party Held Power
- INC/INC(I)/INC(R)
- BJP
- JD
- JP
- JP(S)
- SJP(R)
Learn More
- Prime minister of India
- President of India
- List of presidents of India
- List of deputy prime ministers of India
