List of all Prime Ministers of India From 1947 to 2024

Prime Ministers of India List

List of Prime Ministers of India: The Prime Minister of India is the head of government, and he/she is appointed by the President of India after the general elections. When the nominated candidate of the political party wins in the general elections, the successful candidate who claims more votes is appointed as the Prime Minister of India.

India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed in 1947. India’s current Prime Minister is Shri. Narendra Modi. The next general elections will be held in 2024. In this article, you will get to know about the list of Prime Ministers of India from 1947 to 2023.

Appointment of Prime Ministers of India

Note: The Prime Minister of India is the head of government of India. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of India and is the leader of the majority party in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The Prime Minister of India is appointed by the President of India under Article 75 of the Constitution of India. The article states that the President shall appoint the Prime Minister who is most likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister is the leader of the Union Council of Ministers, which is the highest decision-making body of the government of India.

List Of Indian National Congress Sessions Pre-Independence

List of Prime Ministers of India from 1947 to 2024

In India, the political system follows a parliamentary model, where the Prime Minister holds the dual role of the head of the executive branch and the presiding authority. The Lok Sabha, which is the primary legislative body of the Republic of India, serves as the lower house of the Indian Parliament. Typically, the Prime Minister is the leader of the political party or coalition that holds a majority in the Lok Sabha. Consequently, the Lok Sabha serves as a permanent mechanism for holding the Prime Minister accountable for their actions and decisions.

The President of India appoints the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister must maintain the support of the majority of Lok Sabha members to remain in office. Lok Sabha members are directly elected every five years. The Prime Minister can be a member of either the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha, which are the two houses of Parliament. The Prime Minister holds full authority over the appointment, dismissal, and allocation of positions within the Union Council of Ministers and the government.

Since the Independence of India till now, India has got 19 Prime Ministers. In the table given below, you’ll find the Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 2023.

Prime Minister of India	Term of Office		Days of Service
	Joining Date	End Date
Jawahar Lal Nehru	15th August 1947	27th May 1964	16 years,286 Days
Gulzari lal Nanda	27th May 1964	9th June 1964	13 Days
Lal Bahadur	9th June 1964	11 January 1966	1 Year. 216 Days
Gulzari Lal	11 January 1966	24th January 1966	13 Days
Indira Gandhi	24th January 1966	24th March 1977	11 Years, 59 Days
Morarji Desai	24th March 1977	28th July 1979	2 Years, 126 Days
Charan Singh	28th July 1979	14th January 1980	170 Days
Indira Gandhi	14th January 1980	31 October 1984	4 Years, 291 Days
Rajiv Gandhi	31 October 1984	2 December 1989	5 Years, 32 Days
V.P.Singh	2 December 1989	10th November 1990	343 Days
Chandra Shekhar	10th November 1990	21st June 1991	223 Days
P.V. Narasimha Rao	21st June 1991	16th May 1996	4 Years, 330 Days
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	16th May 1996	1st June 1996	16 Days
H.D. Deve Gowda	1st June 1996	21st April 1997	324 Days
Inder Kumar Gujral	21st April 1997	19th March 1998	332 Days
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	19th March 1998	22 May 2004	6 Years, 64 Days
Manmohan Singh	22 May 2004	26th May 2014	10 Years, 4 Days
Narendra Modi	26th May 2014	Present	–

List of all the Prime Ministers of India, Important Facts

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. He was the longest-serving Prime Minister of India. He was also the first prime Minister to die in office. Nehru served as prime minister for 18 years, first as the interim prime minister and from 1950 as the prime minister of the Republic of India.

Gulzarilal Nanda

Gulzarilal Nanda was the first acting Prime Minister of India. He served as the Prime Minister only for 13 days. He was the Interim Prime Minister of India for two 13-day tenures following the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 respectively. Both his terms ended after the ruling Indian National Congress’s parliamentary party elected a new prime minister. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in 1997.

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the second prime minister of India. He gave the slogan of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan during the Indo-Pak war of 1965. Lal Bahadur Shastri was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and the 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963.

Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the third prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India’s first, and to date only, female prime minister and a central figure of the Indian National Congress.

Morarji Desai

Morarji Desai was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister, and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India.

Charan Singh

Charan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister on 28 July 1979, with outside support from Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I) party and with Yeshwantrao Chavan of the Congress (Socialist) party as his Deputy Prime Minister. Just before he was to confirm his majority in the Lok Sabha, Indira Gandhi withdrew support for his government. He resigned on 20 August 1979, after just 23 days in office, becoming the only Prime Minister never to obtain the confidence of Parliament.

Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian Prime minister at the age of 40.

V.P Singh

Vishwanath Pratap Singh, shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India’s only prime minister to have been former royalty.

Chandra Shekar

Chandra Shekhar was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who had never held any prior government office. His government was largely seen as a “puppet” and “lame duck”, and the government was formed with the fewest party MPs in the Lok Sabha.

P.V.Narimha Rao

P.V.Narimha Rao was the first Prime Minister appointed from the country’s southern part. He severed for 4 years, 330 days. Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao, popularly known as P. V. Narasimha Rao, was an Indian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician and statesman who served three terms as the 10th Prime Minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 to 1999, followed by a full term from 1999 to 2004. He was the first Indian prime minister not of the Indian National Congress to serve a full term in office.

Inder Kumar Gujral

Inder Kumar Gujral served as the 12th Prime Minister of India. He served for 332 days. Inder Kumar Gujral was an Indian diplomat, politician, and freedom activist who served as the 12th prime minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998.

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh was the first Sikh Prime Minister of India. He served for 10 years, and 4 days. Manmohan Singh is an Indian politician, economist, and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi is the 4th Prime Minister to serve for two consecutive years. He is serving as the Prime Minister of India from 26th May 2014 to the present. He is the only Prime Minister who was born after independence. He is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi.

List of Prime Ministers of India- Power and Functions

The Prime Minister of India is the head of the Indian government. The Prime Minister has a significant role to serve the country. The powers and functions of the Prime Minister of India are mentioned below:

• The Prime Minister serves as the Chairman of the Cabinet and leads the meetings of the cabinet.
• The Prime Minister of the country represents the nation while attending any high-level international conferences.
• He proposes the names of the members of his political party to the President for appointment as ministers.
• He has direct control and power over the functioning of Ministers of the cabinet.

First Prime Minister of India

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is the first Prime Minister of India, who was the representative of the Indian National Congress. After the Independence of India, on 15^th August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India. He served as the Prime Minister from 15^th August 1947 to 15^th April 1952. He was appointed by Lord Mountbatten.

Prime Ministers of India List from 1947 to 2023 with Their Tenure

Here is the List of Prime Ministers of India from 1947 to 2023.

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