Prime Minister of India

India follows a parliamentary system of government, modelled after that of the United Kingdom to which it was formerly subject. In this system, the Prime Minister is generally the leader of a party (or coalition of parties) that can gain a majority in the lower house (Lok Sabha) of the Parliament of India.

There have been twelve people who have served as Prime Minister of India. Jawaharlal Nehru served for four terms ('47-'52, '52-'57, '57-'62 and '62-'64). Indira Gandhi served three terms ('66-'71, '71-'77, '80-'83) and Atal Behari Vajpayee) served on two separate occasions. Gulzari Lal Nanda acted Prime Minister during two transition periods, but is generally not counted as a Prime Minister in his own right.

The early years were dominated by the Indian National Congress party, which held the premiership for thirty years after Indian independence. Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister in 1977. The present Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, is from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He became that party's first Prime Minister in 1996, and was later returned to power in 1998.

	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
1	Jawaharlal Nehru	August 15, 1947	May 27, 1964	Indian National Congress
	Gulzari Lal Nanda (acting)	May 27, 1964	June 9, 1964	Indian National Congress
2	Lal Bahadur Shastri	June 9, 1964	January 11, 1966	Indian National Congress
	Gulzari Lal Nanda (acting), 2nd time	January 11, 1966	January 24, 1966	Indian National Congress
3	Indira Gandhi	January 24, 1966	March 24, 1977	Indian National Congress
4	Morarji Desai	March 24, 1977	July 28, 1979	Janata Party
5	Choudhary Charan Singh	July 28, 1979	January 14, 1980	Janata Party
	Indira Gandhi, 2nd time	January 14, 1980	October 31, 1984	Indian National Congress
6	Rajiv Gandhi	October 31, 1984	December 2, 1989	Indian National Congress
7	V. P. Singh	December 2, 1989	November 10, 1990	Janata Dal
8	Chandra Shekhar	November 10, 1990	June 21, 1991	Janata Dal
9	P. V. Narasimha Rao	June 21, 1991	May 16, 1996	Indian National Congress
10	Atal Behari Vajpayee	May 16, 1996	June 1, 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party
11	H. D. Deve Gowda	June 1, 1996	April 21, 1997	Janata Dal
12	I. K. Gujral	April 21, 1997	March 19, 1998	Janata Dal
	Atal Behari Vajpayee, 2nd time	March 19, 1998	(present)	Bharatiya Janata Party

External link

• Office of the Prime Minister

Referenced By