{"id":2302,"date":"2026-10-13T21:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/prime-ministers-of-india-list\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:48:25","slug":"prime-ministers-of-india-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/prime-ministers-of-india-list\/","title":{"rendered":"List of Prime Ministers of India (1947-2026) With Tenure and Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Last updated: October 2026 \u00b7 3 min read<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The <b>Prime Minister<\/b> is the head of the Union Government of India. The President appoints as Prime Minister the leader who commands a majority in the Lok Sabha. Since 1947, 14 people have held the office, plus Gulzarilal Nanda, who served twice as acting Prime Minister.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/prime-ministers-of-india-list.png\" alt=\"Infographic: List of Prime Ministers of India (1947-2026) With Tenure and Party\" class=\"wp-image-2301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/prime-ministers-of-india-list.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/prime-ministers-of-india-list-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/prime-ministers-of-india-list-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/prime-ministers-of-india-list-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption>List of Prime Ministers of India (1947-2026) With Tenure and Party \u2013 infographic by Tiwaripedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Prime Ministers of India<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>No.<\/th><th>Prime Minister<\/th><th>Tenure<\/th><th>Party<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>Jawaharlal Nehru<\/td><td>1947-1964<\/td><td>Indian National Congress<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\u2013<\/td><td>Gulzarilal Nanda (acting)<\/td><td>1964, 1966<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>Lal Bahadur Shastri<\/td><td>1964-1966<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>Indira Gandhi<\/td><td>1966-1977<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>Morarji Desai<\/td><td>1977-1979<\/td><td>Janata Party<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>Charan Singh<\/td><td>1979-1980<\/td><td>Janata Party (Secular)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>Indira Gandhi (again)<\/td><td>1980-1984<\/td><td>INC(I)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6<\/td><td>Rajiv Gandhi<\/td><td>1984-1989<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7<\/td><td>V.P. Singh<\/td><td>1989-1990<\/td><td>Janata Dal<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8<\/td><td>Chandra Shekhar<\/td><td>1990-1991<\/td><td>Samajwadi Janata Party<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9<\/td><td>P.V. Narasimha Rao<\/td><td>1991-1996<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10<\/td><td>Atal Bihari Vajpayee<\/td><td>1996 (13 days)<\/td><td>BJP<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11<\/td><td>H.D. Deve Gowda<\/td><td>1996-1997<\/td><td>Janata Dal<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12<\/td><td>I.K. Gujral<\/td><td>1997-1998<\/td><td>Janata Dal<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10<\/td><td>Atal Bihari Vajpayee (again)<\/td><td>1998-2004<\/td><td>BJP<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>13<\/td><td>Manmohan Singh<\/td><td>2004-2014<\/td><td>INC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>14<\/td><td>Narendra Modi<\/td><td>2014-present<\/td><td>BJP<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<h2>Records and facts<\/h2>\n<ul><li><b>Longest serving:<\/b> Jawaharlal Nehru, about 17 years.<\/li><li><b>First woman PM:<\/b> Indira Gandhi.<\/li><li><b>Youngest at appointment:<\/b> Rajiv Gandhi, aged 40.<\/li><li><b>Oldest at appointment:<\/b> Morarji Desai, aged 81.<\/li><li><b>Shortest term (non-acting):<\/b> Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 13 days in 1996.<\/li><li><b>Never faced Parliament as PM:<\/b> Charan Singh.<\/li><li>Narendra Modi took oath for a third consecutive term on 9 June 2024, equalling Nehru&#8217;s record of three straight terms.<\/li><\/ul>\n<h2>How the Prime Minister is chosen<\/h2>\n<ol><li>Lok Sabha elections are held at least every five years.<\/li><li>The party or coalition with a majority (272 of 543 seats) chooses its leader.<\/li><li>The President invites that leader to form the government.<\/li><li>The PM must be a member of Parliament or become one within six months.<\/li><\/ol>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Who was the first Prime Minister of India?<\/h3>\n<p>Jawaharlal Nehru, from 15 August 1947 until his death on 27 May 1964.<\/p>\n<h3>Who is the current Prime Minister of India?<\/h3>\n<p>Narendra Modi, in office since 26 May 2014 and serving his third term since June 2024.<\/p>\n<h3>How many Prime Ministers has India had?<\/h3>\n<p>Fourteen people have served as Prime Minister, not counting acting PM Gulzarilal Nanda (15 including him).<\/p>\n<h2>Keep exploring<\/h2>\n<ul><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/making-of-indian-constitution\/\">How India&#8217;s Constitution was made<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/india-freedom-struggle-timeline\/\">India&#8217;s freedom struggle<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/partition-of-india-1947\/\">Partition of India 1947<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/category\/list\/\">More Lists articles on Tiwaripedia<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><em>Facts are based on widely accepted official, scientific and historical sources at the time of writing. Spotted something that needs updating? <a href=\"\/index.php\/contact-us\/\">Let us know<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Complete list of Prime Ministers of India from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, with tenure and party, plus records, facts and how a Prime Minister is chosen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow_YXIDA:productID":""},"categories":[338,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2302"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2473,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions\/2473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}