The following is a list of the longest-serving ministers of the Union Council of Ministers of India, listing those individuals who served at least a decade in Union ministries. As of November 2024, 83 Union ministers have served for at least 10 years in office, including 18 who served for 15 years or more and five who served for at least 20 years. As ministers often hold multiple portfolios during their respective tenures, only their final portfolios and the periods they served in their ranks are displayed here. Party affiliations are those held during the tenure (s) in office of each respective officeholder. Since the first Union Council was established in 1947, its members have been categorised into the following five ranks (in descending order):[1]
Ministers of State (without membership of the Union Cabinet), in the following sub-categories:
Ministers of State with Cabinet rank
Ministers of State with Independent Charge of ministries/portfolios
Ministers of State, reporting to the Prime Minister or to a Cabinet Minister
Deputy Ministers (equivalent to Parliamentary Secretaries). Deputy Ministers have not been appointed since 1993.[1]
Ministers in the first three ranks comprise the Union Cabinet, which is the supreme decision-making body of the nation per Article 75 of the Constitution. Regardless of rank, any member of the Union Council is a Union minister, per the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers Act 1952.[1]
When multiple Union ministers have been sworn into office from the same date, they are listed in the order they were administered their oaths of office and secrecy, beginning with the Prime Minister. Union ministers who have served in multiple Union Ministries are listed in order of seniority, i.e. a Cabinet Minister in one Union ministry who remains a Cabinet Minister in a subsequent Union ministry is listed before a Minister of State who was subsequently promoted to the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
↑ With Cabinet rank 14 February 1956 – 17 April 1957.
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