Prime Ministers of India

List of Prime Ministers of India

Manmohan Singh, the 13th and current Prime Minister of India, has been serving since 22 May 2004.

The Prime Minister of India is the political leader of the country and the principal head of government of the Republic of India. As addressed to in the Constitution of India, the prime minister is the chief of government, chief advisor to the president, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament. The office holder is responsible for nominating all other members of the government, chairing cabinet meetings.^[1] The office of Prime Minister was created immediately after the establishment of India, according to the Indian Independence Act, in 1947.^[a][2] There have been 13 and one acting prime ministers since 1947. From Indian National Congress; six, Janata Dal; three and one from Janata Party, Janata Party (Secular), Samajwadi Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have served at the post.
Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed as the first Prime Minister of independent India by the Governor General in 1947. He served at the post till 27 May 1964 when he died in office, making him the longest serving Prime Minister of the country.^[3][4] Gulzarilal Nanda succeed him as the acting Prime Minister and served until elections.^[5] Lal Bahadur Shastri was selected as the second Prime Minister of the country on 9 June 1964^[6] and the place was taken by Nanda as an acting Prime Minister again, when he died.^[7][8] Indira Gandhi assumed the office as the third Prime Minister on 24 January 1966 and served till 24 March 1977, making her the first female Prime Minister of India.^[9][10] Morarji Desai, the first Janata Party leader^[11][b] and Charan Singh the first Janata Party (Secular)^[12][c] leader served at the post chronologically until Gandhi was reelected for the post on 14 January 1980.^[13] She served at the position till 31 October 1984 when she was assassinated,^[14][d] making her the country's second longest serving and the world's second longest serving female Prime Minister.^[17][18]
Rajiv Gandhi, son of the late Indira, succeeded his mother as the sixth prime minister on 31 October 1984.^[19] V. P. Singh, the first Janata Dal leader^[e][20] and Chandra Shekhar,^[21] the first Samajwadi Janata Party^[f][g] then occupied the post until the election of P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress in 1991.^[24] He was succeeded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee; the first Bharatiya Janata Party^[h] leader to take the position 16 May 1996, however the government fell after 13 days as BJP was unable to get the support from other parties.^[25] H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral,^[26][27] both from Janata Dal served at the post chronologically forming the United Front until reelection of Vajpayee in 1998 who formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for the first time.^[28] The government collapsed after thirteen months resulting in fresh polls in which Vajpayee was reelected for the third time.^[25] He served at the post till 22 May 2004 when Indian National Congress again came to power with Dr. Manmohan Singh assuming the post as the 13th Prime Minister, forming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for the first time.^[29][i] Singh continued as prime minister following the 2009 general elections, and governs with the support of the UPA.^[31]

Key

Colour key for party of the prime minister   Bharatiya Janata Party   Indian National Congress, Indian National Congress (Indira)   Janata Dal   Janata Party   Janata Party (Secular)   Samajwadi Janata Party

Other key No.: Incumbent number CM: Council of Ministers † Assassinated or died in office § Returned to office after a previous term RES Resigned NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion

Prime Ministers

No.	Portrait	Name (birth–death); constituency	CM	Took office	Left office	Tenure length	Elections (Lok Sabha)	Appointed by	Political party (alliance)		Ref
1		Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) MP for Phulpur	1	15 August 1947	27 May 1964 [†]	16 years, 286 days	–	Lord Mountbatten	Indian National Congress		[32]
			2				1952 (1st)	Rajendra Prasad
			3				1957 (2nd)
			4				1962 (3rd)
–	–	Gulzarilal Nanda[j] (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha	[4]	27 May 1964	9 June 1964	13 days	– (3rd)	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan			[33]
2		Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–66) MP for Allahabad	5	9 June 1964	11 January 1966 [†]	1 year, 216 days	– (3rd)				[34]
–	–	Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) MP for Sabarkantha	[5]	11 January 1966	24 January 1966	13 days	– (3rd)				[33]
3		Indira Gandhi (1917–84) MP for Rae Bareli	6	24 January 1966	24 March 1977	11 years, 59 days	– (3rd)				[35]
			7				1967 (4th)
			8				1971 (5th)	V. V. Giri
4		Morarji Desai (1896–1995) MP for Surat	9	24 March 1977	28 July 1979 [RES]	2 years, 126 days	1977 (6th)	B. D. Jatti	Janata Party		[36]
5		Charan Singh (1902–87) MP for Baghpat	10	28 July 1979	14 January 1980 [RES]	170 days	– (6th)	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	Janata Party (Secular) with Indian National Congress		[37]
(3)		Indira Gandhi (1917–84) MP for Rae Bareli	11	14 January 1980 [§]	31 October 1984 [†]	4 years, 291 days	1980 (7th)		Indian National Congress (I)		[38]
6		Rajiv Gandhi (1944–91) MP for Amethi	[11]	31 October 1984	2 December 1989	5 years, 32 days	– (7th)	Zail Singh	Indian National Congress		[39]
			12				1984 (8th)
7		V. P. Singh (1931–2008) MP for Fatehpur	13	2 December 1989	10 November 1990 [NC]	343 days	1989 (9th)	R. Venkataraman	Janata Dal (National Front)		[40]
8		Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) MP for Ballia	14	10 November 1990	21 June 1991	223 days	– (9th)		Samajwadi Janata Party with Indian National Congress		[41]
9		P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) MP for Nandyal	15	21 June 1991	16 May 1996	4 years, 330 days	1991 (10th)		Indian National Congress		[42]
10		Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924) MP for Lucknow	16	16 May 1996	1 June 1996 [RES]	16 days	1996 (11th)	Shankar Dayal Sharma	Bharatiya Janata Party		[43]
11	–	H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Karnataka	17	1 June 1996	21 April 1997 [RES]	324 days	– (11th)		Janata Dal (United Front)		[43]
12		I. K. Gujral (1919–2012) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Bihar	18	21 April 1997	19 March 1998	332 days	– (11th)				[44]
(10)		Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924) MP for Lucknow	19	19 March 1998 [§]	22 May 2004	6 years, 64 days	1998 (12th)	K. R. Narayanan	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)		[45]
			20				1999 (13th)
13		Manmohan Singh (born 1932) MP (Rajya Sabha) for Assam	21	22 May 2004	Incumbent	9 years, 56 days	2004 (14th)	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance)		[46]
			22				2009 (15th)	Pratibha Patil