The Chief Minister of Haryana is Nayab Singh Saini of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was first sworn in on 12 March 2024 and took oath again on 17 October 2024 after the party won the assembly election that year. He is the eleventh person to hold the office since Haryana came into existence.
Eleven individuals have been Chief Minister, but they have held office across roughly twenty-two separate spells, because six of them returned to the job more than once. Haryana was carved out of Punjab on 1 November 1966, so the list below starts on that date and runs to the present, with all three President’s Rule spells shown as their own rows.
How the Office Works in Haryana
Article 164 of the Constitution says the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor, and the other ministers are appointed by the Governor on the Chief Minister’s advice. The Governor’s discretion is narrow in practice. By convention the Governor calls the leader who can command a majority in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, and the council of ministers stays in office only while it holds the confidence of that house.
The assembly has a normal life of five years, so a Chief Minister’s term is effectively five years, renewable without limit. Lose the confidence of the house and the term ends whenever that happens, which is why Haryana’s list carries so many part-terms. The Vidhan Sabha currently has 90 seats and sits in Chandigarh, the shared capital of Haryana and Punjab. When no ministry can be formed, Article 356 allows President’s Rule, the council of ministers stands dissolved, and the Governor administers the state on behalf of the Union until a new government takes charge.
Complete List of Chief Ministers of Haryana
| # | Name | Term Start | Term End | Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhagwat Dayal Sharma | 1 November 1966 | 24 March 1967 | Indian National Congress | First Chief Minister; re-sworn on 21 February 1967 after the 1967 election |
| 2 | Rao Birender Singh | 24 March 1967 | 20 November 1967 | Vishal Haryana Party | Ministry built on defectors from the 1967 assembly |
| – | President’s Rule | 20 November 1967 | 21 May 1968 | — | First spell; assembly dissolved |
| 3 | Bansi Lal | 21 May 1968 | 1 December 1975 | Indian National Congress | Continued after the 1972 election; left to become Union Defence Minister |
| 4 | Banarsi Das Gupta | 1 December 1975 | 30 April 1977 | Indian National Congress | Held office through the Emergency |
| – | President’s Rule | 30 April 1977 | 21 June 1977 | — | Second spell |
| 5 | Devi Lal | 21 June 1977 | 28 June 1979 | Janata Party | Later twice Deputy Prime Minister of India |
| 6 | Bhajan Lal | 28 June 1979 | 5 June 1986 | Janata Party, then Congress from January 1980 | Moved his entire ministry to the Congress after the 1980 general election |
| (3) | Bansi Lal | 5 June 1986 | 20 June 1987 | Indian National Congress | Second stint |
| (5) | Devi Lal | 20 June 1987 | 2 December 1989 | Lok Dal, later Janata Dal | Won 1987 on the Lok Dal ticket; left to join the Union government |
| 7 | Om Prakash Chautala | 2 December 1989 | 22 May 1990 | Janata Dal | First of four stints |
| (4) | Banarsi Das Gupta | 22 May 1990 | 12 July 1990 | Janata Dal | Second stint |
| (7) | Om Prakash Chautala | 12 July 1990 | 17 July 1990 | Janata Dal | Five days, the shortest tenure in state history |
| 8 | Hukam Singh | 17 July 1990 | 22 March 1991 | Janata Dal | |
| (7) | Om Prakash Chautala | 22 March 1991 | 6 April 1991 | Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | Fifteen days |
| – | President’s Rule | 6 April 1991 | 23 June 1991 | — | Third and most recent spell |
| (6) | Bhajan Lal | 23 June 1991 | 11 May 1996 | Indian National Congress | |
| (3) | Bansi Lal | 11 May 1996 | 24 July 1999 | Haryana Vikas Party | Led a non-Congress party he founded himself |
| (7) | Om Prakash Chautala | 24 July 1999 | 5 March 2005 | Indian National Lok Dal | Re-sworn on 2 March 2000 after the election |
| 9 | Bhupinder Singh Hooda | 5 March 2005 | 26 October 2014 | Indian National Congress | Two consecutive full terms |
| 10 | Manohar Lal Khattar | 26 October 2014 | 12 March 2024 | Bharatiya Janata Party | First BJP Chief Minister of Haryana |
| 11 | Nayab Singh Saini | 12 March 2024 | Incumbent | Bharatiya Janata Party | Re-sworn on 17 October 2024 after the 2024 election |
Read down the middle of that table and the pattern is unmistakable: between 1967 and 1991 Haryana changed Chief Ministers thirteen times and spent three separate stretches under President’s Rule. From 2005 onwards the picture inverts completely, with only three men holding the office in more than twenty years. The other detail worth noticing is the party column for repeat holders, since Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal, Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala each took the oath under more than one party label.
Longest-Serving and Most Notable Chief Ministers
Bhajan Lal is Haryana’s longest-serving Chief Minister by total time in office, at about 11 years and 300 days across his spells in 1979-86 and 1991-96. Bansi Lal is a close second at roughly 11 years and 283 days across three stints. Because both totals are cumulative, neither man holds the record for the longest unbroken run. That belongs to Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who governed continuously for 9 years and 235 days from March 2005 to October 2014 and is the only Haryana Chief Minister to complete two consecutive terms. Manohar Lal Khattar came within a few months of matching him, serving 9 years and 138 days before making way in March 2024.
Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, a Congress leader from Jhajjar, was the first Chief Minister and took charge the day Haryana was born. His government fell within months, and what followed gave Indian politics one of its most durable phrases. Gaya Lal, an MLA from Hasanpur, switched sides three times in a fortnight in 1967, and Rao Birender Singh presented him at a Chandigarh press conference with the line that “Gaya Ram is now Aaya Ram”. The scramble of defections that produced Rao Birender Singh’s Vishal Haryana Party ministry collapsed the same year and ended in the state’s first President’s Rule. Two decades later that episode was part of the case for the anti-defection law added to the Constitution in 1985.
Bansi Lal is widely called the architect of modern Haryana for the rural electrification and irrigation push of his first long stint, which also made him Union Defence Minister in 1975. Devi Lal built his base on farmers’ politics, served two separate terms as Chief Minister, and went on to be Deputy Prime Minister under both V. P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar. Om Prakash Chautala holds the record for the most separate stints, four, taken under three different party banners, which is a fair summary of Haryana politics between 1989 and 2005.
How Power Has Shifted: Party Trends in Haryana
For most of its history Haryana was Congress territory interrupted by farmer-based regional formations. The Congress supplied the first Chief Minister and has held the office for roughly half the state’s existence. The regional challenge came in waves: the Vishal Haryana Party in 1967, the Janata Party after the Emergency, Devi Lal’s Lok Dal and its Janata Dal successor in the late 1980s, Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party in 1996, and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal from 1999.
| Party | Chief ministers supplied | Approximate time in office |
|---|---|---|
| Indian National Congress | 5 | About 31 years |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 2 | About 11 years 9 months |
| Indian National Lok Dal | 1 | About 5 years 7 months |
| Janata Dal / Lok Dal | 4 | About 3 years 9 months |
| Haryana Vikas Party | 1 | About 3 years 2 months |
| Janata Party | 2 | About 2 years 7 months |
| Vishal Haryana Party | 1 | About 8 months |
| Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | 1 | 15 days |
| President’s Rule | — | About 10 months over three spells |
Records and Quick Facts
Shortest tenure: Om Prakash Chautala’s second stint, 12 to 17 July 1990, lasted five days. His third, in 1991, lasted fifteen.
Most separate stints: Om Prakash Chautala, four, as a member of the Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) and the Indian National Lok Dal.
President’s Rule spells: three, in 1967-68, 1977 and 1991, together adding up to a little over ten months.
No woman Chief Minister: Haryana has not had one in sixty years, one of the few large states with that record.
Youngest to take office: Bansi Lal, born in August 1927, was in his early forties when he first became Chief Minister in May 1968, and was described at the time as the youngest Chief Minister in the country.
A note on dates: most listings, including the Chief Minister’s Office record, put Bansi Lal’s first swearing-in on 21 May 1968, while some newspaper accounts give 31 May 1968. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma’s exit is similarly given as either 23 or 24 March 1967. The differences are of days, not of sequence.
For comparison with neighbouring and similarly sized states, see the reference lists for Delhi and Gujarat.
FAQ
Who is the current Chief Minister of Haryana? Nayab Singh Saini of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was sworn in on 12 March 2024 after Manohar Lal Khattar stepped down, and took oath for a second time on 17 October 2024 following the assembly election.
Who was the first Chief Minister of Haryana? Bhagwat Dayal Sharma of the Indian National Congress, sworn in on 1 November 1966, the day Haryana was created out of Punjab. He held office until March 1967.
Who has served longest as Chief Minister of Haryana? Bhajan Lal, with about 11 years and 300 days in total, narrowly ahead of Bansi Lal. The longest unbroken run belongs to Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who served 9 years and 235 days from 2005 to 2014.
How many Chief Ministers has Haryana had? Eleven individuals have held the office. Counting repeat stints separately, there have been about twenty-two spells, plus three periods of President’s Rule when the post lay vacant.
How is the Chief Minister of Haryana appointed? The Governor appoints the Chief Minister under Article 164, by convention choosing the person who can command a majority in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. The council of ministers is collectively responsible to the assembly and stays in office only while it retains that confidence.
Practice Questions
Practice MCQs
- Haryana was created as a separate state on which date? (a) 1 November 1956 (b) 1 November 1966 (c) 1 April 1967 (d) 9 November 2000 — Answer: (b) Haryana was carved out of Punjab on 1 November 1966 and Bhagwat Dayal Sharma became its first Chief Minister the same day.
- Who was the first Chief Minister of Haryana? (a) Bansi Lal (b) Devi Lal (c) Bhagwat Dayal Sharma (d) Rao Birender Singh — Answer: (c) Bhagwat Dayal Sharma of the Congress held office from 1 November 1966 to March 1967.
- The phrase “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” originated from events in which state assembly? (a) Bihar (b) Haryana (c) Uttar Pradesh (d) Punjab — Answer: (b) It came from the 1967 Haryana assembly, where MLA Gaya Lal changed parties three times in a fortnight.
- Which Chief Minister of Haryana served four separate stints in the office? (a) Bhajan Lal (b) Bansi Lal (c) Om Prakash Chautala (d) Bhupinder Singh Hooda — Answer: (c) Om Prakash Chautala held office four times between 1989 and 2005 under three different party labels.
- Under which Article of the Constitution is the Chief Minister of a state appointed by the Governor? (a) Article 155 (b) Article 163 (c) Article 164 (d) Article 356 — Answer: (c) Article 164 provides for the appointment of the Chief Minister by the Governor and of other ministers on the Chief Minister’s advice.
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