Deputy Prime Minister of India

Deputy Prime Minister of India
Bhārat ke Up Pradhānamantri
State Emblem of India
Flag of India
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 (1947-08-15)

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. 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

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	Term of office			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 Ranchhodji Desai (1896–1995)		Surat, Gujarat	Indian National Congress	13 March 1967	19 July 1969	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	173 days	Morarji Desai		Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
4		Babu Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986)		Sasaram, Bihar	Janata Party	24 January 1979	28 July 1979	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

List of deputy prime ministers by length of term

No.	Name	Party	Length of term
			Longest continuous term	Total years of deputy premiership
1	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	Devi Lal	JD/SJP(R)	242 days	1 year, 100 days
5	Jagjivan Ram	JP	185 days	185 days
6	Charan Singh	JP	173 days	173 days
7	Yashwantrao Chavan	INC(U)	170 days	170 days

Timeline

List by party

Political parties by total timespan of their member holding Deputy Prime Minister's Office (3 December 2021)

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

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

INC

BJP

JP

JD

SJP(R)

INC(U)

•   INC
•   BJP
•   JP
•   JD
•   SJP(R)
•   INC(U)

Living former deputy prime ministers

As of 3 December 2021, there is only one living former deputy prime minister of India:

• Living former deputy prime ministers
• 

  Lal Krishna Advani
  (2002–2004)
  (1927-11-08) 8 November 1927

See also

• 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