Prime Minister of India

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The Prime Minister of India is, in practice, the most powerful person in the government of India. The Prime Minister is technically outranked by the head of state, the President of India. But, as is typical in most parliamentary democracies, because the head of state's duties are largely ceremonial, the Prime Minister has effective responsibility for government.

India follows a parliamentary system of government, which is modelled after that of the United Kingdom. In this system, the Prime Minister is generally the leader of a party (or coalition of parties) that has a majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house) of the Parliament of India. The Prime Minister either has to be a current member of one of the houses of Parliament, or be elected within six months of being appointed.

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[edit] Appointment of the Prime Minister

Formally, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President. The President invites only that person to be the Prime Minister who is leader of the majority party in the Lok Sabha or Rajya sabha. But when no single party gets the majority, the president may invite the leader of a combination of parties constituting the majority in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the single largest party commanding the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha.

[edit] Powers and functions

The Prime Minister selects the members of the Council of Ministers who are formally appointed by the President. He allocates portfolios among the ministers and he can drop any minister. The Prime Minister presides over the meetings of the Council of Ministers. He decides the policies of the government. He coordinates the work of different ministries and solves inter - departmental conflicts. The Prime Minister is the Chairperson of the Planning Commission which is a key body in the process of planning.

The Prime Minister advises the President on all important matters like appointments judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General. He also advises the President on the summoning and proroguing of the Parliament, the dissolving of the Lok Sabha and the declaration of emergencies.

[edit] Prime Ministers through the years

Fourteen individuals have served as Prime Minister of India. Jawaharlal Nehru served for four terms (1947-1952, 1952-1957, 1957-1962, and 1962-1964). Indira Gandhi served three times (1966-1971, 1971-1977, and 1980-1984), and Atal Behari Vajpayee served on three occasions (1996, 1998-1999, 1999-2004). Gulzari Lal Nanda served as acting 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 the first thirty years of India's independence. Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister in 1977. In December 1989 V P Singh of tha Janata Dal became the First priministoer of that party. In 1996, Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party became the first person from that party to become Prime Minister. He was again returned to power in 1998 and then in 1999. The 2004 elections to the Lok Sabha returned the Congress back to power, and Dr. Manmohan Singh was named the Prime Minister-designate on 19 May 2004. He was sworn in on May 22, 2004. Singh is the first Sikh Prime Minister of India. He is also the only Prime Minister who has never been elected to the Lok Sabha.

Four out of the 13 prime ministers were born in Allahabad; the University of Allahabad has produced three prime ministers; and two prime ministers represented Allahabad as MPs. Thus, the city of Allahabad in some way or other has produced eight prime ministers out of the 14 (including the one acting prime minister). Seven out of the 13 prime ministers were born in Uttar Pradesh; nine prime ministers studied in Uttar Pradesh; and ten prime ministers represented constituencies in Uttar Pradesh as MPs. Thus the state of Uttar Pradesh in some way or other has produced nine distinct prime ministers out of the 14.

The official residence of the Prime Minister of India is 7 Race Course Road.

[edit] List of Prime Ministers of India

Key:	INC Indian National Congress	JP Janata Party	JD Janata Dal	BJP Bharatiya Janata Party

No.	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party	Birth Place	Education	Place(s) represented as MP
01	Jawaharlal Nehru	August 15, 1947	May 27, 1964	Indian National Congress	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	Harrow; Trinity College, Cambridge	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh; Phulpur (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh
02	Gulzarilal Nanda	May 27, 1964	June 9, 1964	Indian National Congress	Sialkot, Punjab	University of Allahabad, Allahabad	Bombay, Maharashtra
03	Lal Bahadur Shastri	June 9, 1964	January 11, 1966	Indian National Congress	Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh	Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
04	Gulzarilal Nanda	January 11, 1966	January 24, 1966	Indian National Congress	Sialkot, Punjab	University of Allahabad, Allahabad	Bombay, Maharashtra
05	Indira Gandhi	January 24, 1966	March 24, 1977	Indian National Congress	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	Santiniketan, West Bengal; Oxford University, England	Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh; Medak, Andhra Pradesh
06	Morarji Desai	March 24, 1977	July 28, 1979	Janata Party	Bhadeli, Gujarat	(unknown)	Surat, Gujarat
07	Choudhary Charan Singh	July 28, 1979	January 14, 1980	Janata Party	Meerut, Uttar Pradesh	(unknown)	Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh
08	Indira Gandhi	January 14, 1980	October 31, 1984	Indian National Congress***	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	Santiniketan, Calcutta; Oxford University, England	Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh; Medak, Andhra Pradesh
09	Rajiv Gandhi	October 31, 1984	December 2, 1989	Indian National Congress***	Bombay, Maharashtra	Allahabad; Cambridge University, England	Amethi, Uttar Pradesh
10	Vishwanath Pratap Singh	December 2, 1989	November 10, 1990	Janata Dal	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh	University of Allahabad; University of Pune	Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh
11	Chandra Shekhar	November 10, 1990	June 21, 1991	Janata Dal	Ibrahimpatti, Uttar Pradesh	University of Allahabad, Allahabad	Ballia, Uttar Pradesh
12	P. V. Narasimha Rao	June 21, 1991	May 16, 1996	Indian National Congress***	Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh	Osmania University, Hyderabad; Bombay University; Nagpur University	Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh
13	Atal Behari Vajpayee	May 16, 1996	June 1, 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party	Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh	Laxmi Bai College, Gwalior; DAV College, Kanpur	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
14	H. D. Deve Gowda	June 1, 1996	April 21, 1997	Janata Dal	Haradanahalli, Karnataka	Hassan, Karnataka	Kanakapura; Hassan, Karnataka
15	Inder Kumar Gujral	April 21, 1997	March 19, 1998	Janata Dal	Jhelum (now in Pakistan)	DAV College, Hailey College of Commerce, Lahore	Jalandhar, Punjab
16	Atal Behari Vajpayee	March 19, 1998	May 22, 2004	Bharatiya Janata Party	Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh	Laxmi Bai College, Gwalior; DAV College, Kanpur	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
17	Dr. Manmohan Singh	May 22, 2004	In Office	Indian National Congress	Gah (now in Pakistan)	Panjab University, Chandigarh; Cambridge University; Oxford University	State of Assam in the Upper House Rajya Sabha

Key:	INC Indian National Congress	JP Janata Party	JD Janata Dal	BJP Bharatiya Janata Party

* acting
** resumed office
*** Indian National Congress was also refered to as Congress I ( I for Indira) at this time