The Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers

How a Prime Minister is chosen

1. 1
   A general election to the Lok Sabha is held.
2. 2
   If one party wins a majority, the President invites its leader to be Prime Minister.
3. 3★
   If no party has a majority, the President invites the leader of the largest party who has the support of other parties to reach a majority. This forms a coalition government.
4. 4
   The PM must be a Member of Parliament, or become one within six months.
5. 5
   On the PM's advice, the President appoints the other ministers and gives them their portfolios (departments).

★ key step

Functions of the Prime Minister

• Forms the Council of Ministers: the President appoints ministers and allots departments on the PM's recommendation.
• Presides over Cabinet meetings and tells the President about the Cabinet's decisions.
• Acts as the link between the President and the Council of Ministers.
• Can advise the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha and hold fresh elections.
• If the PM resigns, the whole Council of Ministers is dissolved.
• Is the principal spokesperson of government policy in Parliament and represents India at international meetings.
• Your NIOS lesson says the PM is ex-officio chairman of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council. In 2015 NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission, and the PM chairs it too.

The Council of Ministers

Collective responsibility

Ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President. In practice, they cannot be removed while they keep the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha. The Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. A no-confidence motion is moved by Lok Sabha members to say they no longer trust the Council. If it passes, the whole Council, including the PM, must resign. That is why ministers are said to swim and sink together. In 1999, a Union government lost a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha and resigned. Cabinet discussions are kept secret.

Position of the Prime Minister

The Constitution does not list the PM's powers separately. Yet the PM holds the most powerful office in the Union government. The President's office is one of honour; the PM's is one of power. The PM is called the keystone of the cabinet arch: the central stone that holds the whole arch together. In a coalition government, the PM must consult partner parties and act with care and tact. Coalitions in the States began after the 1967 elections, and at the Centre with the Janata Party government after the 1977 elections. Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first Prime Minister.

How the union government touches daily life

• The Union government plans and runs national schemes that reach villages and towns.
• ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) runs anganwadis for child nutrition and care.
• Your NIOS lesson also names Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (elementary education for all) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (secondary education for all). It names the National Rural Health Mission, the Total Sanitation Campaign and Indira Awas Yojana (homes for poor families) too.
• MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005) guaranteed paid work to rural households. In 2025 Parliament passed a new law to replace it.
• Many of these schemes have since been merged, renamed or replaced. The idea stays the same: Union decisions shape your school, health care, work and home.