SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 4 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who among the following was the shortest-serving Prime Minister of India?

(a)Atal Bihari Vajpayee
(b)Gulzarilal Nanda
(c)Chandra Shekhar
(d)Charan Singh

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Gulzarilal Nanda served as acting Prime Minister twice, for 13 days each time, and no one has held the office for a shorter spell.

He stepped in on the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, from 27 May to 9 June 1964, and again on the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, from 11 to 24 January 1966. Each time he held office only until the ruling party chose a successor.

No other name on the list comes near 13 days, which is what makes option (b) correct.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Atal Bihari Vajpayee — Atal Bihari Vajpayee's first government did fall quickly — 16 May to 1 June 1996 — but that is 16 days, longer than either of Nanda's spells.
(c)
Chandra Shekhar — Chandra Shekhar governed from 10 November 1990 to 21 June 1991, about 223 days. Short by Indian standards, nowhere near the shortest.
(d)
Charan Singh — Charan Singh held office from 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980, roughly 170 days. He is remembered as the Prime Minister who never faced the Lok Sabha, not as the briefest.

Concept

The office of Prime Minister passes without a gap. When an incumbent dies in office, the President appoints a senior minister to act until the ruling party elects a leader, and those caretaker spells are the shortest tenures on record.

Nanda, a senior Congress minister, filled that role twice. He is counted in the standard list of Prime Ministers, which is why he answers a shortest-serving question instead of being set aside as merely acting.

The rest of the short-tenure list has a different cause — minority and coalition governments that lost their majority before completing a term.

Key facts

Gulzarilal Nanda served as acting Prime Minister twice, for 13 days each time.
His first spell ran 27 May to 9 June 1964, after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru.
His second ran 11 to 24 January 1966, after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's first term, 16 May to 1 June 1996, lasted 16 days.

Study next

Prime Ministers of India in order, with the years of their termsPrime Ministers who died in office and who succeeded themArticle 75 and the appointment of the Prime Minister

Common traps

Picking Vajpayee because his 1996 government is popularly called the 13-day government, when the dates give 16 days
Excluding Nanda on the ground that he was only an acting Prime Minister

A superlative plus four plausible names is the shape — here shortest-serving, elsewhere first.

The same shape runs at 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.9 (the first dancer from Odisha to be given the Padma Vibhushan) and at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.24 (the first Indian woman wrestler at the 2012 Olympics).

Fix which extreme the stem wants before you look at the names.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.