Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not only the longest-serving non-Congress Prime Minister but also has the longest tenure as head of an elected government, which includes his term of more than 12 years as Chief Minister of Gujarat, among all Prime Ministers the country has seen.
PM Modi's tenure as the head of a government among all Prime Ministers is 18 years and 306 days, or a total of 6,878 days till August 13, according to a chart shared by BJP sources.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first Prime Minister who never headed a state government, served for 16 years and 286 days. His daughter Indira Gandhi comes third in the length of her tenure as an elected head of a government with a term of 15 years and 350 days as Prime Minister. Like her father, she was also never a Chief Minister.
There have been several chief ministers, including Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, who have served for a longer period as head of an elected government than PM Modi but who never became Prime Minister.
In 2014, the BJP decimated all opposition and swept the election
PM Modi on Thursday became the fourth-longest serving Prime Minister of India, surpassing Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure. The feat also makes PM Modi the country's longest-serving Prime Minister not from the Congress.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh - all from the Congress - are the three longest serving Prime Ministers in that order.
More than a year into his second term, PM Modi still towers over Indian politics and much of the country's political discourse despite never holding a press conference and reaching out to supporters mostly through social media and his speeches at events.
In 2014, the Modi-led BJP decimated all opposition and swept the election, becoming the first party to win a majority in over three decades.
Before moving to New Delhi, PM Modi served as the Chief Minister of his home state Gujarat for 13 years since 2001.
