Leader of the House in Lok Sabha

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.