Minister of Home Affairs (India)
The Minister of Home Affairs is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minister is the maintenance of India's internal security; the country's large police force comes under its jurisdiction. Occasionally, he/she is assisted by the Minister of State of Home Affairs and the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.
Ever since the time of independent India's first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the office has been seen as second in seniority only to the Prime Minister in the Union Cabinet. Like Patel, several Home Ministers have since held the additional portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister. As of February 2020, three Home Ministers have gone on to become the Prime Minister: Lal Bahadur Shastri, Charan Singh and P. V. Narasimha Rao. L.K. Advani, serving from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004, has held the office of the Home Minister for the longest continuous period, as of February 2020.
From 26 May 2014 to 30 May 2019, the Home Minister of India was Rajnath Singh of the Bharatiya Janta Party, taking over the reins from Sushilkumar Shinde. On 31 May 2019, following the swearing-in of the Second Modi Ministry Amit Shah assumed the office as its 31st occupant.List of Home Ministers
