The prime minister of India is the chief executive of the Government of India and chair of the Union Council of Ministers.[1][2] Although the president of India is the constitutional, nominal, and ceremonial head of state,[3][4][5][6] in practice and ordinarily, the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers.[7][8][6] The prime minister is the leader elected by the party with a majority in the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, which is the main legislative body in the Republic of India.[9] The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.[10][11] The prime minister can be a member of the Lok Sabha or of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament. The prime minister ranks third in the order of precedence.
Top left: Jawaharlal Nehru was the first and the longest-serving prime minister in Indian history.
Top center: Indira Gandhi was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister.
Top right: Charan Singh was the first and only prime minister in Indian history who never faced parliament.
Bottom left: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full 5 year term.
Bottom center: Manmohan Singh was the first prime minister from a minority religion.
Bottom right: Narendra Modi is the only prime minister to be born in independent India and is the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister.
The prime minister is appointed by the president of India; however, the prime minister has to enjoy the confidence of the majority of Lok Sabha members, who are directly electedevery five years, unless a prime minister resigns. The prime minister is the presiding member of the Council of Ministers of the Union government. The prime minister unilaterally controls the selection and dismissal of members of the council; and allocation of posts to members within the government. This council, which is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha as per Article 75(3), assists the president regarding the operations under the latter's powers; however, by the virtue of Article 74 of the Constitution, such 'aid and advice' tendered by the council is binding.
Since 1947, India has had 14 prime ministers.[a]Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister, serving as prime minister of the Dominion of India from 15 August 1947 until 26 January 1950, and thereafter of the Republic of India until his death in May 1964. (India conducted its first post-independence general elections in 1952). Earlier, Nehru had served as prime minister of the Interim Government of India during the British Raj from 2 September 1946 until 14 August 1947, his party, the Indian National Congress having won the 1946 Indian provincial elections. Nehru was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose 1 year 7-month term ended in his death in Tashkent, then in the USSR, where he had signed the Tashkent Declaration between India and Pakistan.[12]Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, succeeded Shastri in 1966 to become the country's first female prime minister.[13] Eleven years later, her party the Indian National Congress lost the 1977 Indian general election to the Janata Party, whose leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister.[14] After Desai resigned in 1979, his former associate Charan Singh briefly held office until the Congress won the 1980 Indian general election and Indira Gandhi returned as prime minister.[15] Her second term as prime minister ended five years later on 31 October 1984, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards.[13] Her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as India's youngest premier. Members of Nehru–Gandhi family have been prime minister for approximately 38 years.[16]
^Pillay, Anashri (2019), "The Constitution of the Republic of India", in Masterman, Roger; Schütze, Robert (eds.), Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 146–147, doi:10.1017/9781316716731, ISBN978-1-107-16781-0, LCCN2019019723, S2CID219881288, The head of government is the Prime Minister.
^Dam, Shubhankar (2016), "Executive", in Choudhry, Sujit; Khosla, Madhav; Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 307, ISBN978-0-19-870489-8, The Prime Minister is the head of government.
^Pillay, Anashri (2019), "The Constitution of the Republic of India", in Masterman, Roger; Schütze, Robert (eds.), Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 146–147, doi:10.1017/9781316716731, ISBN978-1-107-16781-0, LCCN2019019723, S2CID219881288, An elected President is the nominal head of state but exercises little power.
^Majeed, Akhtar (2005), "Republic of India", in Kincaid, John; Tarr, G. Alan (eds.), Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries, A Global Dialogue on Federalism, Volume I, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, pp. 180–207, 185, ISBN0-7735-2849-0, ...The president is the constitutional head. (p. 185)
^Dam, Shubhankar (2016), "Executive", in Choudhry, Sujit; Khosla, Madhav; Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 307, ISBN978-0-19-870489-8, The President is the head of the Union of India
^ abSingh, Nirvikar (2018), "Holding India Together: The Role of Institutions of Federalism", in Mishra, Ajit; Ray, Tridip (eds.), Markets, Governance, and Institutions: In the Process of Economic Development, Oxford University Press, pp. 300–323, 306, ISBN978-0-19-881255-5
^Majeed, Akhtar (2005), "Republic of India", in Kincaid, John; Tarr, G. Alan (eds.), Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries, A Global Dialogue on Federalism, Volume I, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, pp. 180–207, 185, ISBN0-7735-2849-0, ...the executive authority is vested in the prime minister and in their Council of Ministers. (p. 185)
^Dam, Shubhankar (2016), "Executive", in Choudhry, Sujit; Khosla, Madhav; Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 307, ISBN978-0-19-870489-8, Executive power, ordinarily, is exercised by Prime Minister.
^Pillay, Anashri (2019), "The Constitution of the Republic of India", in Masterman, Roger; Schütze, Robert (eds.), Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 146–147, doi:10.1017/9781316716731, ISBN978-1-107-16781-0, LCCN2019019723, S2CID219881288, ... Like the British system, there are two houses of parliament – the Lok Sabha, which has 545 members, is the main legislative body. In practice, it is the party with a majority in the Lok Sabha which elects its leader as the Prime Minister.
^Dam, Shubhankar (2016), "Executive", in Choudhry, Sujit; Khosla, Madhav; Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 307, ISBN978-0-19-870489-8, Along with his or her cabinet, the Prime Minister is responsible to the Lower House of Parliament.
^Majeed, Akhtar (2005), "Republic of India", in Kincaid, John; Tarr, G. Alan (eds.), Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries, A Global Dialogue on Federalism, Volume I, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press for Forum of Federation and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, pp. 180–207, 185, ISBN0-7735-2849-0, ...Both for the Union and the states, a "cabinet-type" system of parliamentary government has been instituted in which the executive is continuously responsible to the legislature. (p. 185)
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