Important list of Chief Ministers who became Prime Ministers
List of chief Ministers who went on to become Prime Minister later, take a look
We all know that both the Chief Minister and Prime Minister are the de facto executive or the real executive authority of the state and Centre respectively. The CM and PM head the government at the state and central level.
In India, there have been 6 people in total who were earlier the CM of a state and then went on to become the Prime Minister of our country.
Read more: How the Prime Minister of India is appointed? Roles, Powers & Appointment
| Who? | CM (where and when) | PM (When?) | |
| Morarji Desai | Erstwhile Bombay state during 1952-1956 | 1977-1979 | He was the first Non- Congress Prime Minister. He belonged to the Janta Party.
He was also the second Deputy Prime Minister when Indira Gandhi was the PM. He became the PM after the Emergency that had taken place during the time of Indira Gandhi. |
| Charan Singh | Undivided Uttar Pradesh in 1967-1968 and again in 1970 | 1979-1980 | He is also known as the ‘champions of India’s peasants’.
He was the PM for only 170 days, the shortest time period till now. |
| V.P Singh | Uttar Pradesh, 1980-1982 | 1989-1990 | He belonged to the National Front government.
He had implemented the Mandal Commission report- which gave reservation to Other Backward Classes. |
| P.V Narasimha Rao | Andhra Pradesh, 1971-1973 | 1991-1996 | He was the first Prime Minister from South India.
It was under him and Manmohan Singh (then Finance Minister) that economic reforms took place in India and our country became liberalised. He is known as the ‘Father of Indian Economic Reforms’ |
| H.D. Deve Gowda | Karnataka, 1994-1996 | 1996-1997 | He led the United Front Government.
He was a member of the Rajya Sabha who became PM. |
| Narendra Modi | Gujarat, 2001-2014 | 2014- till date | He is the first PM (other than a Congress leader) to win two consecutive terms and that too, with a full majority.
His tenure as a CM was very controversial as the 2002 Gujarat riot had taken place during that time. However, he was recently given the clean chit for the same. |