Chief Ministers of Maharashtra: Complete List, Tenure and Party

Devendra Fadnavis is the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He took the oath on 5 December 2024 at Azad Maidan in Mumbai after the Mahayuti alliance won 235 of the 288 assembly seats, and this is his third spell in the job. Twenty people in all have held the office since Maharashtra was created on 1 May 1960, and because six of them came back for non-consecutive terms, the state has actually seen 27 separate spells in the Chief Minister’s chair.

That gap between “how many people” and “how many terms” is where most lists go wrong, so this page keeps the two apart. The table below runs from Yashwantrao Chavan in 1960 to the present, marks all three President’s Rule spells as their own rows, and gives exact start and end dates. Where reputable records disagree — and for the 80-hour government of November 2019 they do — the disagreement is spelled out rather than quietly resolved.

How the Office Works in Maharashtra

Article 164 of the Constitution says the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor, and other ministers on the Chief Minister’s advice. The Governor’s discretion is narrow in practice: convention requires appointing whoever can command a majority in the Legislative Assembly. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to that assembly, so the real term limit is not a fixed span of years but the confidence of the House.

The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has 288 seats and a normal term of five years. Maharashtra is one of the few states with a bicameral legislature, so a Chief Minister may sit in the 78-member Legislative Council instead — Prithviraj Chavan and Uddhav Thackeray both did. Anyone appointed while a member of neither House must get elected to one within six months.

When no government can be formed, Article 356 allows President’s Rule: the Council of Ministers stands dissolved, the office lies vacant, and the Governor administers the state. Maharashtra has been under President’s Rule three times, for 155 days in all.

Complete List of Chief Ministers of Maharashtra

Maharashtra came into being under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960, passed on 25 April 1960 and effective from 1 May 1960, which split the old Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat. So the list starts on 1 May 1960. Bombay State had three Chief Ministers after independence — B. G. Kher (1947-1952), Morarji Desai (1952-1956) and Yashwantrao Chavan (1956-1960) — and Chavan carried straight on as the first Chief Minister of the new state.

Numbers in brackets mark a return to office after a break. Dash rows are President’s Rule.

Read down the Notes column and a pattern jumps out: Maharashtra Chief Ministers resign far more often than they lose elections. Antulay, Nilangekar, Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Fadnavis in 2019 and Uddhav Thackeray all left mid-term. Only Vasantrao Naik, Manohar Joshi and Fadnavis in his first term ran a government for anything close to a full assembly cycle. The churn has also tightened: the years since 2019 alone have produced four separate governments and two of the state’s three President’s Rule spells.

Longest-Serving and Most Notable Chief Ministers

Vasantrao Naik is the longest-serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and nobody has come close since. He held office continuously from 5 December 1963 to 21 February 1975 — 11 years and 78 days, or 4,096 days. He is remembered for the state’s employment guarantee scheme, the template for the national rural employment guarantee decades later, and for carrying Maharashtra’s agriculture through the droughts of the early 1970s.

Vilasrao Deshmukh is second on total time in office, at 7 years and 129 days across two terms. Devendra Fadnavis is third: his three spells add up to roughly 2,430 days by mid-July 2026, which is when he passed Sharad Pawar’s cumulative total of 6 years and 221 days. Counts for Fadnavis vary by a few days between compilations, depending on how each treats his 80-hour government of November 2019.

A few tenures changed the state’s direction rather than just filling a slot:

• Yashwantrao Chavan (1960-62) built the new state’s administrative and cooperative institutions and is widely called the architect of modern Maharashtra. He moved to Delhi as Defence Minister after the 1962 war.
• Sharad Pawar is the only person to have held the office three separate times, first at 37 in 1978 by breaking away from the Congress, then twice more from inside it.
• Manohar Joshi (1995-99) was the first Chief Minister from the Shiv Sena, ending 35 unbroken years of Congress rule.
• Uddhav Thackeray (2019-22) was the first Thackeray to hold public office, heading a coalition that put the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress on the same side.

Maharashtra has never had a woman Chief Minister — one of the larger states where that is still true.

How Power Has Shifted: Party Trends in Maharashtra

The Congress governed Maharashtra without a break from 1960 to 1995, then again from 1999 to 2014 — 49 of the state’s first 54 years. Every one of the first eleven Chief Ministers, plus Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, came from the Congress or a Congress splinter.

The realignments since 2019 explain why the recent rows look tangled. The BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena fought the 2019 election together, then fell out over sharing the Chief Minister’s post. President’s Rule followed on 12 November 2019, Fadnavis was sworn in on 23 November with NCP support and resigned three days later, and Uddhav Thackeray took over on 28 November at the head of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

That coalition ended in June 2022, when Eknath Shinde led a majority of Shiv Sena MLAs out of it. Uddhav Thackeray resigned on 29 June and Shinde was sworn in on 30 June with Fadnavis as his deputy. On 17 February 2023 the Election Commission awarded the Shiv Sena name and the bow-and-arrow symbol to the Shinde faction, leaving the Uddhav group as Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). The NCP split the same way in July 2023 when Ajit Pawar joined the government, and the Election Commission recognised his faction as the NCP on 6 February 2024. The 2024 election settled things for now: the Mahayuti won 235 of 288 seats, the BJP alone taking 132, and Fadnavis returned on 5 December 2024 with Shinde and Ajit Pawar as deputies.

Records and Quick Facts

• First Chief Minister: Yashwantrao Chavan, from 1 May 1960.
• Current Chief Minister: Devendra Fadnavis, since 5 December 2024, in his third spell.
• Longest single term: Vasantrao Naik, 11 years and 78 days.
• Shortest term: Devendra Fadnavis in November 2019 — sworn in on the morning of 23 November, resigned on the afternoon of 26 November, about 80 hours later, though the formal record runs to 28 November when his successor took the oath. Before that it was P. K. Sawant’s 10 days in 1963.
• Most terms: Sharad Pawar, three separate spells; Devendra Fadnavis has also served three times.
• Youngest to take office: Sharad Pawar, at 37, in July 1978.
• Died in office: Marotrao Kannamwar, on 24 November 1963.
• President’s Rule: three spells — 1980, 2014 and 2019 — totalling 155 days.
• Individuals versus terms: 20 people, 27 separate spells in office.
• Women Chief Ministers: none so far.

For the neighbouring states, see the lists for Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

FAQ

Who is the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra? Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was sworn in on 5 December 2024 after the Mahayuti alliance won 235 of 288 seats, and this is his third spell in the office.

Who was the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra? Yashwantrao Chavan, on 1 May 1960, the day the state was created out of Bombay State. He had been Chief Minister of Bombay State since November 1956.

Who is the longest-serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra? Vasantrao Naik, who served 11 years and 78 days without a break, from 5 December 1963 to 21 February 1975. Vilasrao Deshmukh is second on total time in office and Devendra Fadnavis third.

How many Chief Ministers has Maharashtra had? Twenty different people since 1960. Counting each fresh appointment separately gives 27 spells, because Sharad Pawar, Devendra Fadnavis, Vasantdada Patil, Shankarrao Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh all returned after a break.

How is the Chief Minister of Maharashtra appointed? Under Article 164 the Governor appoints the Chief Minister, and by convention appoints the leader who can command a majority in the 288-member assembly. The Council of Ministers stays in office only while it holds the confidence of the House.

Practice Questions

Practice MCQs

1. Maharashtra was formed as a separate state on which date? (a) 1 November 1956 (b) 1 May 1960 (c) 26 January 1950 (d) 1 May 1962 — Answer: (b) The Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 took effect on 1 May 1960, splitting Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat.
2. Who holds the record for the longest tenure as Chief Minister of Maharashtra? (a) Vilasrao Deshmukh (b) Sharad Pawar (c) Vasantrao Naik (d) Yashwantrao Chavan — Answer: (c) Vasantrao Naik served continuously for 11 years and 78 days, from December 1963 to February 1975.
3. Under which Article of the Constitution is the Chief Minister of a state appointed by the Governor? (a) Article 154 (b) Article 163 (c) Article 164 (d) Article 356 — Answer: (c) Article 164 provides that the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor and other ministers on the Chief Minister’s advice.
4. How many times has President’s Rule been imposed in Maharashtra since 1960? (a) Once (b) Twice (c) Three times (d) Five times — Answer: (c) In 1980, 2014 and 2019, totalling 155 days.
5. Who was the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra from a party other than the Congress? (a) Manohar Joshi (b) Narayan Rane (c) Devendra Fadnavis (d) Uddhav Thackeray — Answer: (a) Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena took office on 14 March 1995, ending 35 years of unbroken Congress rule.