On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become India’s second-longest serving prime minister in consecutive terms, completing 4,078 straight days in office. This milestone means he will surpass Indira Gandhi’s uninterrupted tenure between 1966 and 1977, and will only trail behind the country’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru.

At 74, Modi is the first prime minister born in Independent India and was sworn in for a third consecutive term in June 2024. He first took office on May 26, 2014. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi also holds the distinction of being the longest-serving PM from a non-Congress party.

According to a source familiar with the matter, July 25 marks the day Modi overtakes Indira Gandhi’s continuous tenure of 4,077 days (from January 24, 1966 to March 24, 1977). While Indira Gandhi also served a second term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, only Nehru has held the top post longer—16 years and 286 days, from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964.

Before becoming PM, Modi was Gujarat’s longest-serving chief minister, in office from 2001 to 2014.

He is the first and only non-Congress leader to complete at least two full terms as Prime Minister, and the only one to be re-elected three times. He is also the only non-Congress leader to have secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha.

In 2014, under Modi’s leadership, the BJP won a majority with 272 seats. In 2019, the party improved its tally to 303 seats. Although the BJP didn’t cross the halfway mark in the 2024 elections, it remained the largest party and formed the government with its NDA allies, securing Modi’s third straight term.

“He’s the first sitting PM since Indira Gandhi in 1971 to be re-elected with a majority, and the only PM apart from Nehru to win three straight elections as the leader of his party,” the source added.