Table of Contents
General Knowledge: List of Prime Ministers in India
In India, the President is the head of state. He is bestowed with powers that are nominal. The head of the government is the Prime Minister. Article 74 and 75 of the Indian Constitution deals with the Council of Ministers and Prime Ministers of India. Article 78 of the Indian Constitution states the duties of the PM of India.
The Prime Ministers of India are appointed by the President after a political party wins the general election. The leader of this party is thereafter appointed as the Prime Minister.
See Also, List of Presidents in India (1950 – 2020)
India has had 14 Prime Ministers from 1947 to date. The details of these PMs are given in chronological order below (earliest to recent).
List of Prime Ministers Of India:
Key:
* – Assassinated or died during the tenure
# – Resigned
## – Resigned with no-confidence motion
^ – Returned after the previous term
| Name of Prime Minister | Tenure of Service | Constituency | Party (Alliance) |
| Jawahar Lal Nehru (1889-1964) | 15 August 1947 – 15 April 1952 15 April 1952 – 17 April 1957 17 April 1957 – 2 April 1962 2 April 1962 – 27 May 1964 * | Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh | Indian National Congress |
| Gulzarilal Nanda (Acting) (1898 – 1998) | 27 May 1964 – 9 June 1964 | Sabarkantha, Gujarat | Indian National Congress |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904 – 1966) | 9 June 1964 – 11 January 1966 * | Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh | Indian National Congress |
| Gulzarilal Nanda (Acting) (1898 – 1998) | 11 January 1966 – 24 January 1966 | Sabarkantha, Gujarat | Indian National Congress |
| Indira Gandhi (1917 – 1984) | 24 January 1966 – 4 March 1967 | Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Uttar Pradesh | Indian National Congress |
| 4 March 1967 – 15 March 1971 15 March 1971 – 24 March 1977 | Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh | Indian National Congress (R) | |
| Morarji Desai (1896 – 1995) | 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979 # | Surat, Gujarat | Janata Party |
| Charan Singh (1902 – 1987) | 28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980 # | Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh | Janata Party (Secular) wit INC (I) |
| Indira Gandhi (1917 – 1984) | 14 January 1980 ^ – 31 October 1984 * | Medak, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) | Indian National Congress (I) |
| Rajiv Gandhi (1944 – 1991) | 31 October 1984 – 31 December 1984 31 December 1984 – 2 December 1989 | Amethi, Uttar Pradesh | Indian National Congress (I) |
| Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1931 – 2008) | 2 December 1989 – 10 November 1990 ## | Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh | Janata Dal (National Front) |
| Chandra Shekhar (1927 – 2007) | 10 November 1990 – 21 June 1991 # | Ballia, Uttar Pradesh | Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) with INC (I) |
| PV Narasimha Rao (1921 – 2004) | 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996 | Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh | Indian National Congress (I) |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924 – 2018) | 16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996 | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| HD Deve Gowda (Born 1933) | 1 June 1996 – 21 April 1997 # | Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Karnataka | Janata Dal (United Front) |
| Inder Kumar Gujral (1919 – 2012) | 21 April 1997 – 19 March 1998 | Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Bihar | Janata Dal (United Front) |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924 – 2018) | 19 March 1998 ^ – 10 October 1999 10 October 1999 – 22 May 2004 | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh | Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) |
| Manmohan Singh (Born 1932) | 22 May 2004 – 22 May 2009 22 May 2009 – 26 May 2014 | Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Assam | Indian National Congress (UPA) |
| Narendra Modi (Born 1950) | 26 May 2014 – 30 May 2019 30 May 2019 – Incumbent | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh | Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) |
Prime Ministers of India PDF – Download
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Also See: List of Presidents in INDIA (1950 – 2020)
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Brief of each Prime Minister
If you are looking to increase your General Knowledge about the PMs of India, you can read the brief of each of them below.
Narendra Damodardas Modi
Honorable PM Narendra Modi is the 14th Prime Minister of India. He is the head of the government and leader of the Lok Sabha (Lower House). He is also the head of the Council of Ministers. Narendra Damodardas Modi was first elected in 2014 to the 16th Lok Sabha. He is serving his second tenure now.
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh was the 13th PM of India. He headed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments two times. He has also completed two terms as the Prime Minister of the nation. Manmohan Singh was the leader of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) from 1998 to 2004. Currently, he is serving his sixth tenure in the Rajya Sabha. As the finance minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government in 1991, he introduced LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation). He is well-known for the same. Dr. Manmohan Singh is the 1987 recipient of the Padma Vibhushan. He was also the 15th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the man who gave us the slogan ‘Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan, Jai Vigyan’. He has served three terms as the Prime Minister. He was first elected as the 10th PM and served only for 13 days. Atal Ji was then elected as the 12th PM where he served 2 full tenures. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, in 2014. Vajpayee was also the minister of External Affairs in the Morarji Desai government. He was elected 10 times to the Lok Sabha and 2 times to the Rajya Sabha. Vajpayee was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, now called Bharatiya Janata Party. He was the first president of that party. The 2nd Pokhran nuclear tests in 1988 were under his tenure. His birthday (25th December) is marked in India as Good Governance Day.
Inder Kumar Gujral
Inder Kumar Gujral was the Minister of External Affairs. He is remembered for the Gujral Doctrine. This is a set of 5 principles to guide the foreign policy of India with its immediate neighbors, especially Pakistan. He was the 12th Prime Minister in India. He was a member of the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha.
HD Deve Gowda
The 11th Prime Minister of India, Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda was the chief minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. He was chosen as the PM when no party had won enough seats to form the government. The United Front formed the government with Congress’s support. He was the president of the Janata Dal (Secular). Deve Gowda was a member of the 14th, 15th, and 16th Lok Sabha after his term as the Indian PM.
PV Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao is the first Indian PM to have been elected from Southern India. He was the 10th Prime Minister in India. He has served as the Defence Minister as well as the Minister of External Affairs. Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was also the Home Minister of Rajiv Gandhi’s government. He was the 4th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The economic reforms in 1991 were brought under his tenure as the Prime Minister.
Chandra Shekar
Chandra Shekar headed a minority government of Janata Dal with the support of Congress to delay the election process. With the least number of MPs in this party, the government was called the ‘Lame Duck’. He was elected as the 8th Indian Prime Minister. The economic crisis in 1991 and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi were two main events in his tenure.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh
VP Singh was the 7th Prime Minister of India and the 12th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has also served as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Defence under the Rajiv Gandhi government. This was when the Bofors Scandal surfaced. The Mandal Commission Report for reservation in government posts and educational institutions was implemented during his tenure.
Rajiv Gandhi
Son of preceding PM Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was the 6th Prime Minister of India. He took the office on the day his mother was assassinated. Rajiv Gandhi was 40 years old when he took the office. He was the youngest Prime Minister of the nation. Rajiv Gandhi has served as the pilot for Indian Airlines. His term saw prominent cases such as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Shah Bano, and the Bofors Scandal. He was assassinated at the age of 46 by an LTTE suicide bomber. Rajiv Gandhi was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna.
Chaudary Charan Singh
C Charan Singh was born to a peasant family in Uttar Pradesh. He was the champion of Peasants Rights. He was elected as the 5th Prime Minister.
Mororji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was the chief minister of the state of Bombay. This was then partitioned into Maharashtra and Gujarat. He led the government that was formed by the Janata Party. The was the 4th PM.
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshni Gandhi, daughter of Jawahar Lal Nehru, was the first and only female Prime Minister of India. She served the second-longest term as the PM. She has served as the Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs, and Minister of Information and Broadcasting. The 1975 state emergency was imposed by her to suspend elections. The war with Pakistan for the liberation of East Pakistan in 1971 was held during her term in office. Following Operation Blue Star, she was assassinated by her own bodyguard.
Gulzarilal Nanda
He has served as the acting Prime Minister twice. Gulzarilal Nanda first took office for 13 days after the death of PM Jawahar Lal Nehru. He then took office for 13 days followed by the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Lal Bahadur Shastri
He was the man that gave us the slogan ‘Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan’. This became popular during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war. He was our second Prime Minister. The war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement. Shastri Ji died the next day. His death is still a mystery.
Jawahar Lal Nehru
Nehru Ji was the first and the longest-serving Prime Minister of India. He was one of the leading figures in the Indian independence movement. Jawahar Lal Nehru served as the PM for 16 years. He is fondly known as ‘Chacha Nehru’ due to his love for children. His birthday (24th November) is celebrated as Children’s Day in India. He is also known as ‘Pandit Nehru’ due to his roots in the Kashmiri Pandit community.
Frequently asked question
1. Who is the present Prime Minister of India?
A. Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current PM of India. He is generally addressed as Narendra Modi or Modi Ji. He is serving his second term in 2019.
2. Who was the longest-serving Indian Prime Minister?
A. Jawaharlal Nehru served office for 16 years (1947 – 1964). He served 4 terms. Nehru Ji is the longest-serving Prime Minister.
3. Who was the first Indian Prime Minister?
A. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Indian Prime Minister. He served from 1947 to 1964 (till his death). He served 4 terms.
4. How many women Prime ministers did India have?
A. One. India has had only one woman Prime Minister since 1947. Indira Gandhi, the 3rd Prime Minister was the first and only female Prime Minister of India.
5. Who was the youngest Prime Minister of India?
A. Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest Prime Minister of India. He took office when was 40 years old. He took office the day after his mother, Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
Also Read,
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