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Deputy Prime Minister of India
| Deputy Prime Minister of India | |
|---|---|
| Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri | |
 | |
 | |
Incumbent Vacant since 23 May 2004 | |
| Member of | Parliament of India Union Council of Ministers |
| Nominator | Prime Minister of India |
| Appointer | President of India |
| Inaugural holder | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
| Formation | 15 August 1947 |
The Deputy Prime Minister of India (IAST: Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri), officially the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of India, is the deputy to the Prime Minister of India, who is head of the government of India. The deputy prime minister is the second highest-ranking member of the Union Council of Ministers.[1] A deputy prime minister usually also holds a senior cabinet portfolio such as the home minister, defence minister or finance minister or foreign minister. In the parliamentary system of government, the prime minister is treated as the "first among equals" in the cabinet; the position of deputy prime minister is used to bring political stability and strength within a coalition government or in times of national emergency, when a proper chain of command is necessary. On multiple occasions, proposals have arisen to make the post permanent, but without result. The same goes for the post of deputy chief minister at the state level.
The office has since been only intermittently occupied, having been occupied for a little more than 10 years out of the 73 years since its inception. Since 1947 India has had 7 deputy prime ministers, of which none having at least one full term. The first was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel of the Indian National Congress party, who was sworn in on 15 August 1947, when India gained independence from the British Raj. Serving until his death in December 1950, Patel remains India's longest-serving deputy prime minister. The post was vacant until Morarji Desai became the second deputy prime minister in 1967 and has the second-longest tenure. Morarji Desai and Chaudhary Charan Singh were the deputy prime ministers who later became Prime Minister of India. Babu Jagjivan Ram and Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan became deputy prime ministers consecutively without the break in different ministries. Chaudhary Devi Lal is the only deputy prime minister to represent both parties in the same post. Lal Krishna Advani was the seventh and last person to serve as the deputy prime minister of India until the post became vacant.
The current government does not have a deputy prime minister and the post has been vacant since 23 May 2004.
List[edit]
- Key
- No.: Incumbent number
- † Assassinated or died in office
- § Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
- RES Resigned
- NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion
| BJP (1) INC (2) INC(U) (1) JD (1) JP (2) SJP(R) (1) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Portrait | Name
(Birth–Death) |
Elected Constituency | Political Party[lower-alpha 1] | Term of office[2] | Prime Minister | Appointed by | ||||
| 1 | 
|
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950) |
Did not contest | Indian National Congress | 15 August 1947 | 15 December 1950[†] | 3 years, 122 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Louis Mountbatten | ||
| Vacant (16 December 1950 – 12 March 1967) | |||||||||||
| 2 | 
|
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) |
Surat, Gujarat | Indian National Congress | 13 March 1967 | 19 July 1969[RES] | 2 years, 128 days | Indira Gandhi | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | ||
| Vacant (20 July 1969 – 23 January 1979) | |||||||||||
| 3 | 
|
Chaudhary Charan Singh (1902–1987) |
Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh | Janata Party | 24 January 1979 | 16 July 1979[RES] | 173 days | Morarji Desai | Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy | ||
| 4 | 
|
Babu Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986) |
Sasaram, Bihar | Janata Party | 24 January 1979 | 28 July 1979[RES] | 185 days | ||||
| 5 | 
|
Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan (1913–1984) |
Satara, Maharashtra | Indian National Congress (U) | 28 July 1979 | 14 January 1980 | 170 days | Charan Singh | |||
| Vacant (15 January 1980 – 1 December 1989) | |||||||||||
| 6 | 
|
Chaudhary Devi Lal (1915–2001) |
Rohtak, Haryana and Sikar, Rajasthan |
Janata Dal | 2 December 1989 | 1 August 1990 | 242 days | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | ||
| Vacant (2 August 1990 – 9 November 1990) | |||||||||||
| (6) |
|
Chaudhary Devi Lal (1915–2001) |
Rohtak, Haryana and Sikar, Rajasthan |
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | 10 November 1990 | 21 June 1991 | 223 days | Chandra Shekhar | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | ||
| Vacant (22 June 1991 – 28 June 2002) | |||||||||||
| 7 | 
|
Lal Krishna Advani (1927–) |
Gandhinagar, Gujarat | Bharatiya Janata Party | 29 June 2002 | 22 May 2004 | 1 year, 328 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | K. R. Narayanan | ||
| Vacant (Since 23 May 2004) | |||||||||||
Statistics[edit]
- List of deputy prime ministers by length of term
| No. | Name | Party | Length of term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longest continuous term | Total years of deputy premiership | |||
| 1 | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel | INC | 3 years, 122 days | 3 years, 122 days |
| 2 | Morarji Desai | INC | 2 years, 128 days | 2 years, 128 days |
| 3 | Lal Krishna Advani | BJP | 1 year, 328 days | 1 year, 328 days |
| 4 | Chaudhary Devi Lal | JD/SJP(R) | 242 days | 1 year, 100 days |
| 5 | Babu Jagjivan Ram | JP | 185 days | 185 days |
| 6 | Chaudhary Charan Singh | JP | 173 days | 173 days |
| 7 | Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan | INC(U) | 170 days | 170 days |
- Timeline
- List by party
| No. | Political party | Number of Deputy prime ministers | Total days of holding DPMO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INC | 2 | 2077 days |
| 2 | BJP | 1 | 693 days |
| 3 | JP | 2 | 358 days |
| 4 | JD | 1 | 242 days |
| 5 | SJP(R) | 1 | 223 days |
| 6 | INC(U) | 1 | 170 days |
- Parties by total duration (in days) of holding Deputy Prime Minister's Office
Living former deputy prime ministers[edit]
As of 3 April 2025, there is only one living former deputy prime minister of India:
- Living former deputy prime ministers
Lal Krishna Advani
(2002–2004)
8 November 1927
See also[edit]
- President of India
- Vice President of India
- Prime Minister of India
- List of presidents of India
- List of vice presidents of India
- List of prime ministers of India
Notes[edit]
- ↑ This column only names the deputy prime minister's party. The central government he heads with prime minister may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these are not listed here.
References[edit]
- ↑ Rajendran, S. (2012-07-13). "Of Deputy Chief Ministers and the Constitution". The Hindu. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
- ↑ The ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period
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