In India, the head of state is the President, whose powers are largely nominal and ceremonial. Prime Minister of India is the head of the government. He is appointed by the President after a political party win in a general election and nominates a candidate for the post. The major executive power rests with the Council of Ministers, headed by the prime minister A candidate has to follow the eligibility criteria mentioned below to become a Prime Minister. The candidate who is contesting as prime minister must be a citizen of India, should be a member of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. If the person elected as prime minister is neither a member of the Lok Sabha nor of the Rajya Sabha, then he must become a member of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha within six months. He must attain 25 years of age (in the case of a seat in the Lok Sabha) or above 30 years of age (in the case of a seat in the Rajya Sabha).
Here we provide the detailed List of Prime Ministers of India in chronologically ordered from 1947 to till date. This is one of the most important topic in competitive exams like UPSC,SSC,IB,RRB,APPSC/TSPSC and other government exams.
The list of Prime Ministers of India along with the period they served in the office, is given in the table below:
List of Prime Ministers of India:
| SL NO | NAME OF THE PRIME MINISTER | TENURE |
| 1 | Jawahar Lal Nehru (INC) | 15th Aug 1947 to 27th May 1964 |
| 2 | Gulzarilal Nanda (Interim/Acting) | 27th May 1964 to 9th June 1964 |
| 3 | Lal Bahadur Shastri (INC) | 9th June 1964 to 11th Jan 1966 |
| 4 | Gulzarilal Nanda (Interim/Acting) | 11th Jan 1966 to 24th Jan 1966 |
| 5 | Indira Gandhi (INC) | 24th Jan 1966 to 24th March 1977 |
| 6 | Morarji Desai (JP) | 24th March 1977 to 28th July 1979 |
| 7 | Charan Singh (JP) | 28th July 1979 to 14th Jan 1980 |
| 8 | Indira Gandhi (INC) | 14th Jan 1980 to 31st Oct 1984 |
| 9 | Rajiv Gandhi (INC) | 31st Oct 1984 to 2nd Dec 1989 |
| 10 | Vishwanath Pratap Singh(JD) | 2nd Dec 1989 to 10th Nov 1990 |
| 11 | Chandra Shekhar (SJP) | 10th Nov 1990 to 21st Jun 1991 |
| 12 | P.V. Narasimha Rao (INC) | 21st June 1991 to 16th May 1996 |
| 13 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee(BJP) | 16th May 1996 to 1st June 1996 |
| 14 | H.D. Deve Gowda (JD) | 1st June 1996 to 21st April 1997 |
| 15 | Inder Kumar Gujral (JD) | 21st April 1997 to 19th March 1998 |
| 16 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee (BJP) | 19th March 1998 to May 2004 |
| 17 | Dr. Manmohan Singh (INC) | 22nd May 2004 to 26th May 2014 |
| 18 | Narendra Damodardas Modi (BJP) | 26th May 2014 to Incumbent |
INC – Indian National Congress, JP – Janata Party, JD – Janata Dal
BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party, SJP – Samajwadi Janata Party
For Download: Prime Ministers of India
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