List of Prime Ministers of India from 1947 to 2014

Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of India list with photo

» The Prime Minister of India (भारत के प्रधानमन्त्री) is the head of government and leader of the executive branch of the Government of India.

» In India's parliamentary system, the Constitution names the President as head of state de jure, but his or her de facto executive powers are vested in the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers.

» Appointed and sworn-in by the President, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the party or alliance that has a majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament.

» Prime Minister is also the chief adviser to the President of India and head of the Council of Ministers.

» Prime Minister can be a member of any of the two houses of Parliament (the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha), but has to be the leader of the political party, having a majority in the Lok Sabha

» The federal or union cabinet headed by the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of India to assist the latter in the administration of the affairs of the executive.

» Union cabinet is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha as per Article 75(3).

» The Constitution envisions a scheme of affairs in which the President of India is the head of the executive in terms of Article 53 with office of the prime minister as chief of Council of Ministers to assist and advise the president in the discharge of his/her constitutional functions.

The executive powers of the Union shall be vested in the president and shall be exercised either directly or through subordinate officers, in accordance with the Constitution.

— Article 53(1), Constitution of India

There shall be a Council of Ministers with the prime minister at the head to aid and advise the president who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.

— Article 74(1), Constitution of India

The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.

— Article 75(1), Constitution of India

» Since 1947, India has had fourteen Prime Ministers, fifteen including Gulzarilal Nanda who twice acted in the role.

» The first was Jawaharlal Nehru of the Indian National Congress party, who was sworn-in on 15 August 1947, when India gained independence from the British.

» Serving until his death in May 1964, Nehru remains India's longest-serving prime minister.

» Nehru was succeeded by fellow Congressman Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose 19-month term also ended in death.

» Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first woman premier.

» Eleven years later, Indira Gandhi was voted out of power in favour of the Janata Party, whose leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister.

» Following is the complete list of prime ministers of India appointed so far

List of Prime Ministers of India (From 1947 to 2017)

№	Name (birth–death)	Portrait	Prior Office	Party (Alliance)	Elected constituency	Term of office			Appointed by
1	Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)		Indian freedom fighter	Indian National Congress	Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh	15 August 1947	27 May 1964[†]	16 years, 286 days	Lord Mountbatten
									Rajendra Prasad
–	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting) (1898–1998)		Union Minister of Labour and Employment	Indian National Congress	Sabarkantha, Gujarat	27 May 1964	9 June 1964	13 days	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
2	Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966)		Minister of Home Affairs	Indian National Congress	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	9 June 1964	11 January 1966[†]	1 year, 216 days
–	Gulzarilal Nanda (acting) (1898–1998)		Minister of Home Affairs	Indian National Congress	Sabarkantha, Gujarat	11 January 1966	24 January 1966	13 days
3	Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)		Minister of Information and Broadcasting	Indian National Congress	Rajya SabhaMP for Uttar Pradesh	24 January 1966	24 March 1977	11 years, 59 days
			Prime Minister (Re-elected)		Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh
			Prime Minister (Re-elected)						V. V. Giri
4	Morarji Desai (1896–1995)		Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of India before he resigned in 1969	Janata Party	Surat, Gujarat	24 March 1977	28 July 1979[RES]	2 years, 126 days	B. D. Jatti (acting President)
5	Charan Singh (1902–1987)		Minister of Finance	Janata Party (Secular) with INC	Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh	28 July 1979	14 January 1980[RES]	170 days	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
(3)	Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)		Former Prime Minister	Indian National Congress (I)	Medak, Telangana	14 January 1980[§]	31 October 1984[†]	4 years, 291 days
6	Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991)		MP for Amethi	Indian National Congress (I)	Amethi, Uttar Pradesh	31 October 1984	2 December 1989	5 years, 32 days	Zail Singh
			Former Prime Minister (Re-elected)
7	V. P. Singh (1931–2008)		Minister of Defence	Janata Dal (National Front)	Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh	2 December 1989	10 November 1990[NC]	343 days	R. Venkataraman
8	Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007)		MP for Ballia	Samajwadi Janata Party with INC	Ballia, Uttar Pradesh	10 November 1990	21 June 1991	223 days
9	P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004)		Minister of External Affairs	Indian National Congress (I)	Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh	21 June 1991	16 May 1996	4 years, 330 days
10	Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924)		Minister of External Affairs	Bharatiya Janata Party	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh	16 May 1996	1 June 1996[RES]	16 days	Shankar Dayal Sharma
11	H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933)		Chief Minister of Karnataka	Janata Dal (United Front)	Rajya SabhaMP for Karnataka	1 June 1996	21 April 1997[RES]	324 days
12	Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012)		Minister of External Affairs	Janata Dal (United Front)	Rajya SabhaMP for Bihar	21 April 1997	19 March 1998	332 days
(10)	Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 1924)		Former Prime Minister (Re-elected)	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh	19 March 1998[§]	22 May 2004	6 years, 64 days	K. R. Narayanan
			Former Prime Minister (Re-elected)
13	Manmohan Singh (born 1932)		Minister of Finance	Indian National Congress (UPA)	Rajya SabhaMP for Assam	22 May 2004	26 May 2014	10 years, 4 days	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
			Former Prime Minister (Re-elected)						Pratibha Patil
14	Narendra Modi (born 1950)		Chief Minister of Gujarat	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)	Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh	26 May 2014	Incumbent	Incumbent	Pranab Mukherjee

Key

• №: Incumbent number
• ^† Assassinated or died in office
• ^§ Returned to office after a previous term
• ^RES Resigned
• ^NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion