Chief Minister who became Prime Minister of India

We all know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat before becoming the PM. But is he the only politician who was a Chief Minister who went on to become the Prime Minister of India, or were there others too? So, in this article, we’d be discussing the list of Chief Minister who became Prime Minister of India. Moreover, we’d also be discussing the major initiatives taken by them.

Chief Minister who became Prime Minister of India

Altogether, there are six chief ministers who went on to become the Prime Minister of India.

1) Morarji Desai

Chief Ministers who became Prime Minister — Image by- Times of India

Morarji Desai was the first Chief Minister who went on to serve as the Prime Minister of India.
He was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile Bombay State during 1952-56.
Morarji Desai was also the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India, he belonged to the Janta Party.
He swore as the Prime Minister of India in March 1977.
He also served as the Deputy Prime Minister under Indira Gandhi between 1967-69.
He also served as a Finance Minister and Home Minister of India.
He was also the oldest person to hold the office of the Prime Minister, at the age of 81.
One of the major initiatives taken by Morarji Desai was his international peace activism and his efforts to initiate peace between India and Pakistan. He also vowed to avoid conflicts such as the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

2) Charan Singh

Charan Singh was the Chief Minister of the undivided Uttar Pradesh in 1967-1968.
He succeeded Morarji Desai.
Due to his initiatives and efforts for the betterment and welfare of the peasants, he is known as the ‘champions of India’s peasants.’
However, he was the Prime Minister of India only for 170 days, which is the shortest time period till now.
He was forced to resign only after 24 weeks as Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party withdrew support to the government.
However, Charan Singh continued to lead the Lok Dal opposition until his death in 1987.

3) Vishwanath Pratap Singh (VP Singh)

VP Singh was also the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
He became the 8th Prime Minister of India in the short-lived National Front Government, from December 1989 to November 1990.
VP Singh was also the only Prime Minister of India to have been a former Zamindar.
His greatest achievement as the Prime Minister was the implementation of the Mandal Commission report which gave reservation to Other Backward Classes.
He also served as the Minister of Commerce in the INC Government from 1976 to 1977.

4) P.V. Narasimha Rao

P.V Narasimha Rao served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 1971 to 1973.
P.V. Narasimha Rao was the first Prime Minister from South India.
He served as the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996.
He belonged to the Indian National Congress
And it was under him and Manmohan Singh (then Finance Minister of India) that economic reforms took place in India and India became liberalized.
P.V. Narasimha Rao is also known as the ‘Father of Indian Economic Reforms.’
He and Manmohan Singh implemented the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization) reforms and implemented the IMF (International Monetary Fund) policies that rescued the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse. (Click here to read more about the LPG reforms).
Moreover, the future Prime Ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh continued the economic reform policies pioneered by Rao’s Government.

5) H.D. Deve Goda

H.D. Deve Goda served as the 12th Prime Minister of India from 1st June 1996 to 21st April 1997.
He was the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996, after which he was chosen to lead the United Front Government.
He belonged to the Janata Dal (secular) party and served as its president.
He was initially a member of the Indian National Congress, which he left in 1962. He was also imprisoned during the Emergency in 1975.
One of his major initiatives was providing financial closure and kickstarting the development of the Delhi Metro Project.

6) Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India.
Before becoming the Prime Minister he served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat four times from 2001 to 2014.
Narendra Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Narendra Modi is the first non-Congress Prime Minister to win two consecutive terms and that too with a full majority.
He is currently a Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi.
He is also the first Indian Prime Minister to have been born after Independence (1947).
One of the major steps taken by him is the abrogation of Article 370 (which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir).