Surpassing Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling, Modi enters his 25th year in power — a journey from Gujarat CM to three-term PM shaped by development, Hindutva and the crucible of 2002
By NIRENDRA DEV
New Delhi, March 25, 2026 — On March 22, 2026, Narendra Modi crossed a threshold no Indian leader has reached before. With 8,931 days as head of government — combining more than thirteen years as Chief Minister of Gujarat and nearly twelve as Prime Minister — he surpassed the record held by Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling and entered his twenty-fifth consecutive year in executive power.
The milestone invites reflection not just on longevity, but on the singular arc that produced it.
Till the morning of February 27, 2002, Modi was another BJP chief minister — capable, ambitious, but not yet a national phenomenon. The torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, the communal carnage that followed, and the controversy that engulfed his government transformed him. Critics sought to end him politically. The Supreme Court examined his role. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, visiting a Muslim relief camp, publicly asked him to observe “Raj Dharma.” Yet Modi survived — and more than survived. He turned the crucible of 2002 into the foundation of a political identity that fused Hindutva nationalism with aggressive development economics, producing what analysts now call Brand Moditva.
By 2013, when BJP declared him its prime ministerial candidate, his own mentor L K Advani objected. It did not matter. Modi won the 2014 general election with a full majority — the first non-Congress leader to do so — was sworn in as India’s fourteenth Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, and has not lost a national election since.
He is the first Prime Minister born after Independence. He is the first non-Congress PM to complete two full terms and return for a third. He is, along with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, among the very few major world leaders to have survived the political fallout of Covid-19 and won subsequent elections.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh — who played a pivotal role in making Modi the BJP’s prime ministerial face in September 2013, overriding objections from Advani and Sushma Swaraj — paid tribute on X. “With 8,931 days in public office as head of Government, this moment reflects his deep commitment to nation-first governance, integrity in action, and tireless service to every citizen,” he wrote.
Home Minister Amit Shah said the Modi era had “transformed India unrecognisably.” JP Nadda, Piyush Goyal, and Ashwini Vaishnaw echoed the sentiment.
For the record: Jawaharlal Nehru served as Prime Minister from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964. Jyoti Basu led West Bengal from June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000. Modi has now outlasted them all.
The question the milestone raises — as it does for any leader of such duration — is whether longevity is the same as legacy. That verdict, as always, belongs to history.
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