The leader of the House in Lok Sabha (IAST: ) is the parliamentary chairperson of the party that holds a majority in the Lok Sabha, usually the prime minister, if they are a member of the house. If the prime minister is not a member of the Lok Sabha, a minister who is nominated by the prime minister serves as the leader of the house.
History Seventeen individuals had served as the leader of the house in the Lok Sabha. Of which, twelve individuals (including Gulzarilal Nanda) were prime ministers and served as the leader of the house. Jawaharlal Nehru became the first leader of the house after the 1951 general election and served as the leader of the house until his death in 1964. After his demise, acting prime minister Gulzarilal Nanda briefly served as the leader of the house. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri served as the Leader of the House, followed by acting prime minister Gulzarilal Nanda, for a second brief stint, served as the leader of the house.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi following her appointment in 1966 was a member of the Rajya Sabha and hence appointed Parliamentary Affairs minister Satya Narayan Sinha as the leader of the house in the Lok Sabha. Following her election to the Lok Sabha in the 1967 general election, Gandhi replaced Sinha as the leader of the house. Sinha, was thus, the first leader of the house who was not the prime minister.
Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, V. P. Singh, Chandrashekhar, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee also served as the leaders of the house. After the 1991 general election, newly appointed prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao was not elected to either house of the parliament. Education Minister Arjun Singh served as the leader of the house until the election of prime minister Rao as a member of the Lok Sabha from Nandyal in a bye-election in November 1991.
Two Janata Dal prime ministers H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral were members of the Rajya Sabha, hence Railways Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, being a senior member of the cabinet, served as the leader of the house under both premiers. Similarly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a member of the Rajya Sabha during his premiership from 2004 till 2014, the senior-most minister in the union cabinet Pranab Mukherjee served as the leader of the house from 2004 till his resignation from the Lok Sabha in 2012 after being elected as the President of India. He was succeeded by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde as the leader of the house.
The current prime minister Narendra Modi has been serving as the leader of the house since 2014.
List of leaders of the House in Lok Sabha
Key Assassinated or died in office LokSabhaPortraitName(borndied)ConstituencyTerm of officeMinisterial offices heldPolitical partyGovernmentPrime MinisterSpeaker1stJawaharlal Nehru19521957Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs and Commonwealth AffairsIndian National CongressNehru II SelfGanesh Vasudev MavalankarM. A. Ayyangar2nd19571962Nehru III3rd19621964Nehru IVHukam SinghGulzarilal Nanda19641964Acting Prime Minister Minister of Home Affairs Minister of External AffairsNanda ISelfLal Bahadur Shastri19641966 Prime MinisterShastriSelfGulzarilal Nanda19661966Acting Prime Minister Minister of Home AffairsNanda IISelfSatya Narayan Sinha19661967 Minister of Parliamentary AffairsIndira IIndira Gandhi4thIndira Gandhi19671970Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs Minister of Finance Minister of Home Affairs Minister of Defence Indira IISelfNeelam Sanjiva Reddy Indira IIIGurdial Singh Dhillon5th19711977Bali Ram Bhagat6thMorarji Desai19771979Prime Minister Minister of Finance Minister of Home Affairs Janata Party DesaiSelfNeelam Sanjiva ReddyK. S. HegdeCharan Singh19791979Prime MinisterJanata Party (Secular)CharanSelf7thIndira Gandhi19801984Prime Minister Minister of Defence Minister of External Affairs Indian National CongressIndira IVSelfBalram JakharRajiv Gandhi19841984Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs Minister of Defence Minister of Finance RajivSelf8th198419899thVishwanath Pratap Singh19891990Prime Minister Minister of Defence and Human Resource Development Minister of External Affairs Janata DalV. P. SinghSelfRabi RayChandra Shekhar19901991Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra ShekharSelf10thArjun Singh19911991Minister of EducationIndian National CongressRaoP. V. Narasimha RaoShivraj PatilP. V. Narasimha Rao19911996Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs Minister of Defence Minister of Railways Self11thAtal Bihari Vajpayee19961996Prime Minister Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry of Textiles Minister of Commerce and IndustryBharatiya Janata PartyVajpayee ISelf P. A. Sangma Ram Vilas Paswan19961997Minister of Railways Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Janata Dal Deve GowdaH. D. Deve Gowda GujralInder Kumar Gujral12thAtal Bihari Vajpayee19981999Prime Minister Minister of External Affairs Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Communications and Information Technology Minister of Non Conventional Energy Sources Minister of Coal and Mines Minister of Environment and Forests Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee IISelfG. M. C. Balayogi13th19992004 Vajpayee IIIManohar Joshi14thPranab Mukherjee20042009Minister of Defence Minister of External Affairs Minister of Finance Indian National CongressManmohan IManmohan SinghSomnath Chatterjee15th20092012Manmohan IIMeira KumarSushilkumar Shinde20122014 Minister of Home Affairs16thNarendra Modi20142019Prime Minister Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences Bharatiya Janata Party Modi ISelfSumitra Mahajan17th20192024Modi IIOm Birla18th2024IncumbentModi III
List of deputy leaders The deputy leader of the House in Lok Sabha (IAST: ) is the deputy parliamentary chairperson of the party that holds a majority in the Lok Sabha and is responsible for government business in the house. LokSabhaName(borndied)ConstituencyTerm of officePolitical partyLeader of the HouseSpeaker14throwspan="3" Meira KumarMP for Sasaram20042009Indian National Congressrowspan="3" Pranab Mukherjeerowspan="1" Somnath Chatterjee15thSushilkumar ShindeMP for Solapur20092012rowspan="2" Meira KumarMallikarjun KhargeMP for Gulbarga20122014Sushilkumar Shinde16throwspan="4" Gopinath MundeMP for Beed20142014 Bharatiya Janata Partyrowspan="4" Narendra Modirowspan="4" Sumitra MahajanSushma SwarajMP for Vidisha2014201917th 18thRajnath SinghMP for Lucknow2019IncumbentOm Birla
Role Leader of the House in Lok Sabha is meant to lead the Lok Sabha in order to hold the Union Council of Ministers accountable to the house.Article 75(3) of Constitution of India
See also Speaker of the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Secretary General of the Lok Sabha
Statistics #Leader of HousePartyTermsLength of term Longest tenure Total tenure 1 Indira Gandhi 3 5 years, 309 days 14 years, 162 days 2 Jawaharlal Nehru 3 4 years, 360 days 12 years, 11 days 3 Narendra Modi 3 5 years, 5 days 11 years, 327 days 4 Pranab Mukherjee 2 4 years, 358 days 8 years, 16 days 5 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 3 4 years, 116 days 5 years, 170 days 6 Rajiv Gandhi 2 4 years, 331 days 5 years, 27 days 7 P. V. Narasimha Rao 1 4 years, 156 days 4 years, 156 days 8 Morarji Desai 1 2 years, 127 days 2 years, 127 days 9 Sushilkumar Shinde 1 1 years, 288 days 1 years, 288 days 10 Lal Bahadur Shastri 1 1 years, 216 days 1 years, 216 days 11 Ram Vilas Paswan 1 1 years, 176 days 1 years, 176 days 12 Satya Narayan Sinha 1 1 years, 17 days 1 years, 17 days 13 V. P. Singh 1 343 days 343 days 14 Arjun Singh 1 133 days 133 days 15 Chandra Shekhar 1 123 days 123 days 16 Gulzarilal Nanda 1 13 days 26 days 17 Charan Singh 1 25 days 25 days
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