In Indian Parliamentary system, although President is the head of the state but the executive powers rest in the hands of Prime Minister and his council of Ministers. Indian Prime Ministers are appointed and sworn in by the President. Indian Prime Ministers belongs to the party or alliance of the lower house of Parliament. Since Independence India has seen 15 Prime Ministers including Gulzarilal Nanda who worked twice as Acting PM. 7 Race Course Road (Panchvati, 7 RCR) is the official residence of Indian Prime Ministers. On 22nd Sept 2016, 7 RCR was renamed as 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. It does not contains the Prime Minister’s Office, which is in South Block of Secretariat Building on Raisina Hills. The first occupant of 7 RCR (7 Lok Kalyan Marg) was Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. 7 RCR (7 Lok Kalyan Marg) was officially declared as Indian Prime Ministers Residence in the Period of V P Singh. 15th and current Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi assumed the Residence as 5 RCR initially and not 7 RCR due to pending renovation works in 7 RCR.
21 Interesting Facts about Indian Prime Ministers
- Jawaharlal Nehru was the India’s longest serving Prime Minister who served for more than 16 years. He served as Prime Minister for 4 times : 1 st From 1947 to 1952 when he was elected with consensus, 2nd : 1952 to 1957 when he won the General Elections of 1952, 3rd : 1957 to 1962 in which he again won the general elections of 1957, 4th : 1962 -1964 in which he won the election of 1962 but died in chair in 1964. He was also called Architect of Modern India.
- The only person who worked twice as the Acting Prime Minister for 13 days each – Gulzarilal Nanda.
- The original name of Lal Bahadur Shastri was Lal Bahadur Varma. He got the surname Shastri (Scholar) after passing out from Kashi Vidya Peeth in Varanasi.
- Lal bahadur Shastri was from very humble background and was not able to save the life of her daughter when she was ill due to lack of money for medicines.
- Indira Gandhi was also called as “Priyadarshini”. This name was given to her by Rabindra Nath Tagore.
- Indira Gandhi was the first person who belonged to Rajya Sabha during nomination as Prime Mnister.
- Indira Gandhi was enrolled for studies at Oxford University but she was not able to complete her degree. She got Honorary degree by Oxford later.
- After a petition filed by Raj Narain, Allahabad High Court cancelled Indira Gandhi’s election as PM in 1975 after finding her guilty of electoral malpractices.
- Jai Prakash Narain the noted socialist and Gandhian Leader played a major role in defeat of Indira Gandhi in 1977 General Elections. He also manged to bring all other parties to a common platform “Janta Party”.
- Rajiv Gandhi was Pilot by profession. He was the youngest ever Prime Minister of India. He was sworn in as Prime Minister the same day when Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
- Rajiv Gandhi went for Studies at Trinity College, Cambridge but was not able to complete the degree as like her mother.
- V P Singh who worked as Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Prime Ministership played a crucial role in unearthing the Bofors Scam which brought quite disgrace to Rajiv Gandhi.
- V P Singh became Prime Minister after winning the elections of 1989 by combining other parties under United Front but soon lost the confidence motion due to withdrawal of support from BJP.
- P V Narsimha Rao was the first Prime Minister from non Hindi belt (South India).
- The first Congress PM outside of Nehru – Gandhi family – P V Narsimha Rao.
- P V Narsimha Rao was the only PM who was multilinguist and knew and speak 14 languages – Marathi, Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujrati, Tamil, Urdu, English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German and Parsian apart from mother tongue Telugu.
- The PM who is called Father of Economic Reforms of India – P V NArsimha Rao.
- Only three persons belonged to Rajya Sabha during their nomination for Prime Minsiter – 1st Indira Gandhi, 2nd H D Devegoda and 3rd I K Gujaral.
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first parliamentarian to give a speech in hindi to the United Nations General Assembly.
- The first Non-Congress Party person to rule India for full terms of 5 years – Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- After the general Elections of 1984 (in which Rajiv Gandhi won majority), the first person to gain majority of seats and formed government without support of allies – Narendra Modi.
List of Indian Prime Ministers and their Service Terms
| Name | Service Term | Constituency | Party | Remarks |
| J L Nehru | 1947 to 1964 | Phulpur | Indian National Congress | Served 4 times - 1) 1947 to 52, 2) 1952 to 57, 3) 1957 to 62, 4) 1962 to 64. Died in 64 in Chair. |
| Gulzari Lal Nanda | 1964 to 1964 | Sabarkantha | Indian National Congress | Acting Prime Minister |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1964 to 1966 | Allahabad | Indian National Congress | Died in 66 in Chair |
| Gulzari Lal Nanda | 1966 to 1966 | Sabarkantha | Indian National Congress | Acting Prime Minister for second time |
| Indira Gandhi | 1966 to 1977 | Rae Bareli | Indian National Congress | Served 4 times - 1) 1966 to 67, 2) 1967 to 71, 3) 1971 to 77, 4) 1980 to 84 |
| Morarji Desai | 1977 to 1979 | Surat | Janta Party | Resigned in 1979 |
| Charan Singh | 1979 to 1980 | Baghpat | Janta Party with INC | Resigned on 14 Jan 1980 |
| Indira Gandhi | 1980 to 1984 | Medak | Indian National Congress | Elected for 4th term in 1980. Assassinated on 31 Oct 1984 in Chair |
| Rajiv Gandhi | 1984 to 1989 | Amethi | Indian National Congress | |
| V P Singh | 1989 to 1990 | Fatehpur | Janta Dal (National Front) | Served 343 Days |
| Chandrashekhar | 1990 to 1991 | Balia | Samajwadi Janta Party with INC | Served 223 Days |
| P V Narsimha Rao | 1991 to 1996 | Nandyal | INC | |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 1996 to 1996 | Lucknow | BJP | Served 13 Days |
| H D Devegoda | 1996 to 1997 | MP Rajya Sabha for Karnataka | Janta Dal (United Front) | Served 324 Days |
| I K Gujral | 1997 to 1998 | MP Rajya Sabha for Bihar | Janta Dal (United Front) | Served 332 Days |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 1998 to 2004 | Lucknow | BJP | 1st tenure for 13 months then 2nd tenure for full term |
| Mammohan Singh | 2004 to 2014 | MP Rajya sabha for Assam | INC | 1st Tenure 2004 to 2009, 2nd Tenure 2009 to 2014 |
| Narendra Modi | 2014 to till date | Varanasi | BJP | Incumbent |