Narendra Modi becomes 2nd longest serving Prime Minister of India, surpassing Indira Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister  on Friday marked a major milestone in the country’s history, becoming the second-longest-serving PM of India in consecutive terms, surpassing the record of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Notably, he is the first non-Congress Prime Minister to mark this achievement. Additionally, Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister born after independence and the longest-serving from a non-Hindi state.

Narendra Modi, 74, took oath as Prime Minister for the first time on May 26, 2014 and has served a total of 11 years and 60 days in office till date.

The erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had served for 11 years 59 days in office in consecutive terms. She held the highest office as Prime Minister of India from January 24, 1966 – March 24, 1977.

Former and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru holds the record of the longest-serving Prime Minister of India in consecutive terms for 16 years and 286 days, from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964.

The first Prime Minister born after India’s independence, Prime Minister Modi, has previously served as the Prime Minister of India from 2014 to 2019 and from 2019 to 2024.

He also has the distinction of being the longest-serving Chief Minister of Gujarat with his term spanning from October 2001 to May 2014
In the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary elections, PM Modi led the Bharatiya Janata Party to record Lok Sabha wins, securing absolute majority on both occasions. The last time that a political party secured such an absolute majority was in the 1984 elections in which Congress secured a landslide vicotry.

Prime Minister Modi-led government has also taken several notable decisions during his term, including the Abrogation of Article 370, the abolition of Triple Talaq, the construction of Ram Janmbhoomi Temple in Ayodhya, the Waqf Amendment Act, etc.

Inspired by the motto of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, Prime Minister Modi has ushered in a paradigm shift in governance that has led to inclusive, development-oriented and corruption-free governance. The Prime Minister has worked with speed and scale to realise the aim of Antyodaya, or ensuring last-mile delivery of schemes and services.

Leading international agencies have noted that under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India has been eliminating poverty at a record pace.

According to the findings from NITI Aayog’s latest report ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06’, almost 25 crore people escaped multidimensional poverty in last nine years. The credit for this remarkable achievement goes to the significant initiatives of the government to address all dimensions of poverty. (ANI)