NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday became India’s second-longest serving prime minister in consecutive terms, completing 4,078 uninterrupted days in office — surpassing the continuous tenure of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi, who held office from January 24, 1966, to March 24, 1977, had served 4,077 days in her first uninterrupted term. Modi, 74, assumed office on May 26, 2014, and was sworn in for a historic third consecutive term in June 2024 after the Lok Sabha elections. With this milestone, he trails only Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, who served for 16 years and 286 days from August 15, 1947, to May 27, 1964.
Modi is now the first and only non-Congress prime minister to complete two full terms and secure a third successive mandate. He also holds the distinction of being the first PM born in independent India and remains the longest-serving prime minister from a non-Congress party.
Before becoming Prime Minister, Modi served as the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 — the longest tenure for a CM in the state's history. His national political journey began with the BJP’s landslide victory in the 2014 general elections, where the party secured 272 Lok Sabha seats on its own. Under his leadership, the BJP improved its tally to 303 in 2019. Although it fell short of an outright majority in the 2024 elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party and formed the government with the support of its NDA allies.
Modi is also the only non-Congress leader to have led a party to a single-party majority in the Lok Sabha — a feat he achieved twice, in 2014 and 2019.
Indira Gandhi returned to power for a second term from January 14, 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984. However, her unbroken tenure during her first term had remained second only to Nehru — until Modi’s latest record.