Chief Ministers of West Bengal: Complete List, Tenure and Party

The current Chief Minister of West Bengal is Suvendu Adhikari of the Bharatiya Janata Party, sworn in on 9 May 2026 after the BJP won a majority in the 2026 assembly election. He is the ninth Chief Minister of the state and the first from his party.

Nine people have held the office since West Bengal got its first Chief Minister on 26 January 1950. Two of them — Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and Bidhan Chandra Roy — had already served as Premier of the state in the years between Partition and the Constitution. The state has also seen four spells of President’s Rule, all of them packed into the decade between 1968 and 1977. Here is the whole record with exact dates.

How the Office Works in West Bengal

Article 164 of the Constitution provides that the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor, and that the other ministers are appointed by the Governor on the Chief Minister’s advice. In practice the Governor invites whoever can command a majority in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, and the Council of Ministers remains collectively responsible to that house.

The assembly has 294 elected seats, so a working majority needs 148 MLAs. A term lasts five years from the assembly’s first sitting unless it is dissolved sooner, and there is no cap on how many times one person can be reappointed — which is how Jyoti Basu served through five consecutive assemblies.

Before the Constitution came into force, the state’s head of government was styled Premier rather than Chief Minister. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh took charge on 15 August 1947 and handed over to Bidhan Chandra Roy on 23 January 1948. Roy carried on seamlessly and became West Bengal’s first Chief Minister when the Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950, which is why the numbered list starts with him rather than with Ghosh.

When no ministry can command the assembly, Article 356 lets the President assume the state’s administration. The office of Chief Minister then falls vacant and the Governor runs the state for the Union. West Bengal’s four such spells are shown as their own rows below.

Complete List of Chief Ministers of West Bengal

The numbered list begins on 26 January 1950. The two Premiers of 1947-50 are shown first for completeness but are not part of the Chief Ministerial numbering. Numbers in brackets mark a person returning to office after an interruption.

The shape of this list is unusual for a large Indian state. Only nine people have been Chief Minister in seventy-six years, and eleven separate spells of office cover the whole period — a fraction of the churn seen in states like Tamil Nadu or Bihar. Two men, Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee, between them account for more than thirty-eight of those years.

The instability was concentrated and brief. Between March 1967 and March 1972 the state ran through three assembly elections, four ministries and three spells of President’s Rule. After Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s full term and the short 1977 spell, West Bengal has had unbroken elected government for forty-nine years.

One row needs a caveat. The two days between Mamata Banerjee’s exit on 7 May 2026 and Suvendu Adhikari’s swearing-in on 9 May 2026 are described in some listings as “Governor’s Rule”. No proclamation under Article 356 was issued in that window, so it is more accurate to call it a vacancy in the office between one ministry’s end and the next one’s oath — the same kind of short gap that occurs at most changes of government. It is shown separately here only so the dates read cleanly, and it should not be counted as a fifth President’s Rule.

Longest-Serving and Most Notable Chief Ministers

Jyoti Basu (CPI(M)) is by a wide margin the longest-serving Chief Minister the state has had: 23 years and 138 days, from 21 June 1977 to 6 November 2000, spanning five consecutive assemblies elected in 1977, 1982, 1987, 1991 and 1996. He was the longest-serving Chief Minister in India until Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim passed his record in April 2018. Basu stepped down on health grounds while his government still held a comfortable majority, and Operation Barga — the tenancy-registration drive that gave recorded sharecroppers security of tenure — is the policy most closely tied to his early years.

Mamata Banerjee (AITC) is second, with 14 years and 352 days from 20 May 2011 to 7 May 2026, across three terms won in 2011, 2016 and 2021. She was the first woman to hold the office, and she is the only person to have unseated a Left Front government at the polls.

Bidhan Chandra Roy (INC) served 12 years and 156 days as Chief Minister, on top of his two years as Premier — the longest run of the Congress era. A physician by training, he is remembered for the planning of Durgapur, Kalyani, Bidhannagar and Ashokenagar, and for absorbing the refugee influx that followed Partition. He died in office on 1 July 1962, on his own birthday.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya (CPI(M)) held office for 10 years and 195 days, from Basu’s resignation to the Left Front’s defeat in 2011. His attempt to bring large industrial investment into the state — and the land-acquisition disputes at Singur and Nandigram that followed — reshaped West Bengal’s politics and contributed directly to the 2011 result.

Siddhartha Shankar Ray (INC) matters for a different reason. Taking office on 20 March 1972 after three President’s Rule spells in four years, he was the first Chief Minister since the mid-1960s to serve a full five-year term, ending the state’s most unstable phase.

The firsts are straightforward. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh was the state’s first head of government, as Premier from 15 August 1947. Bidhan Chandra Roy was the first to hold the title of Chief Minister. Mamata Banerjee was the first woman, and Suvendu Adhikari the first from the BJP.

How Power Has Shifted: Party Trends in West Bengal

West Bengal’s post-independence politics falls into four blocks. The Congress governed from 1947 to 1967 and again from 1972 to 1977, producing four Chief Ministers. The turbulent middle years, 1967 to 1972, belonged to United Front coalitions led by Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee of the Bangla Congress, interrupted three times by President’s Rule.

The third block is the long one. The CPI(M)-led Left Front took office on 21 June 1977 and did not leave until 20 May 2011 — 33 years and 333 days of unbroken rule, usually rounded off in commentary as “34 years”, and one of the longest stretches any democratically elected communist government has managed anywhere. Just two men led it: Basu for the first twenty-three years, Bhattacharya for the last ten.

The fourth block opened in 2011, when the Trinamool Congress ended that run and Mamata Banerjee began fifteen years in office. The 2026 election closed it, bringing the BJP to power in the state for the first time.

Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee is the reason the party column needs care. He led the first two United Front ministries as a Bangla Congress leader, then took office a third time in April 1971 after joining the Congress, so official listings show him under two different parties. The same double-counting applies to Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, a Congressman as Premier in 1947 but an Independent when he returned as Chief Minister in November 1967.

Records and Quick Facts

• Longest total tenure: Jyoti Basu, 23 years 138 days — also the longest unbroken tenure, since it was one continuous spell.
• Shortest tenure: Prafulla Chandra Ghosh’s Chief Ministership, 91 days (21 November 1967 to 20 February 1968).
• Most spells of office: Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, three (1967, 1969-70 and 1971), totalling 873 days.
• Died in office: one — Bidhan Chandra Roy, on 1 July 1962.
• President’s Rule spells: four — 1968-69, 1970-71, 1971-72 and 1977, totalling 934 days.
• Longest single-party run: the Left Front, 33 years 333 days (1977-2011).
• First woman Chief Minister: Mamata Banerjee, 2011.
• Fewest Chief Ministers: nine in seventy-six years, among the lowest totals for any large Indian state.
• Assembly strength: 294 elected seats; 148 needed for a majority.

For comparable state records, see the Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers list and the list of Gujarat Chief Ministers.

FAQ

Who is the current Chief Minister of West Bengal? Suvendu Adhikari of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been Chief Minister since 9 May 2026. He is the ninth Chief Minister of the state and the first from the BJP.

Who was the first Chief Minister of West Bengal? Bidhan Chandra Roy, from 26 January 1950. He had already been Premier of the state since 23 January 1948, and the very first head of government after Partition was Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, who took charge as Premier on 15 August 1947.

Who served the longest as Chief Minister of West Bengal? Jyoti Basu, for 23 years and 138 days in one unbroken spell from June 1977 to November 2000. He was India’s longest-serving Chief Minister until Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling overtook him in 2018.

How many Chief Ministers has West Bengal had? Nine, counting from Bidhan Chandra Roy in 1950. Those nine held office across eleven separate spells, because Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee returned twice. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh also served earlier as Premier, before the post of Chief Minister existed.

How is the Chief Minister of West Bengal appointed? Under Article 164, the Governor appoints as Chief Minister the person able to command a majority in the 294-member Legislative Assembly, then appoints the remaining ministers on that person’s advice. The ministry holds office only so long as it keeps the assembly’s confidence.

Practice Questions

Practice MCQs

1. Who was the first Chief Minister of West Bengal after the Constitution came into force? (a) Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (b) Bidhan Chandra Roy (c) Prafulla Chandra Sen (d) Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee — Answer: (b) Roy became Chief Minister on 26 January 1950, having been Premier since January 1948.
2. For how long did the Left Front govern West Bengal without interruption? (a) 23 years (b) 28 years (c) Almost 34 years (d) 40 years — Answer: (c) From 21 June 1977 to 20 May 2011, a stretch of 33 years and 333 days.
3. How many spells of President’s Rule has West Bengal seen? (a) Two (b) Three (c) Four (d) Five — Answer: (c) In 1968-69, 1970-71, 1971-72 and 1977; there has been none since.
4. Which Chief Minister of West Bengal held office three separate times? (a) Jyoti Basu (b) Siddhartha Shankar Ray (c) Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee (d) Prafulla Chandra Sen — Answer: (c) Mukherjee headed governments in 1967, 1969-70 and 1971.
5. Jyoti Basu’s record as India’s longest-serving Chief Minister was surpassed in 2018 by the Chief Minister of which state? (a) Odisha (b) Sikkim (c) Tripura (d) Mizoram — Answer: (b) Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim crossed the record in April 2018.

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