Chief Minister of Assam

The chief minister of Assam, an Indian state, is the head of the government of Assam. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is the state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly, the governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Given that he has the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits. Chief Minister also serves as Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly.

Since 1946, Assam has had 17 chief ministers. Ten of them belonged to the Indian National Congress, including Gopinath Bordoloi, the first chief minister of Assam, and Anwara Taimur, India's first female Muslim chief minister. Congress party's continuous rule in the state was brought to an end when Golap Borbora led the Janata party to victory in the 1978 elections. Borbora consequently became the first non-Congress chief minister of the state. Prior to that, Borbora was also the first non-Congress leader to be elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state. Congressman Tarun Gogoi is the longest-serving officeholder, having served for 15 years between 2001 and 2016. Sarbananda Sonowal became the first chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party, when he was sworn in on 24 May 2016. On 9 May 2021, Himanta Biswa Sarma was announced as the 15th chief minister of Assam.

Oath as the state chief minister

The chief minister serves five years in the office. The following is the oath of the chief minister of state: Template:Blockquote

Prime Ministers of Assam (1935Template:Ndash1950)

Under the Government of India Act 1935, a bicameral legislature was set up with a legislative assembly and a legislative council. The premier of Assam was the head of the government and leader of the legislative assembly of Assam Province.

#Template:Efn	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Term of office			Assembly	PartyTemplate:Efn (coalition)		Government
1		Muhammed Saadulah	Kamrup (South)	1 April 1937	19 September 1938	Template:Ayd	1st Provincial (1937 election)	Assam Valley Party (INC)		Saadulah I
2		Gopinath Bordoloi	Kamrup Sadar (South)	19 September 1938	17 November 1939	Template:Ayd		Indian National Congress	width="4px" style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Bordoloi I
(1)		Muhammed Saadulah	Kamrup (South)	17 November 1939	24 December 1941	Template:Ayd		Assam Valley Party (AIML)		Saadulah II
-	-	Vacant (Governor's Rule)	-	25 December 1941	24 August 1942	Template:Ayd	Dissolved	N/A
(1)	Error creating thumbnail:	Muhammed Saadulah	Kamrup (South)	25 August 1942	11 February 1946	Template:Ayd	1st Provincial (1937 election)	Assam Valley Party (AIML)		Saadulah III
(2)	Error creating thumbnail:	Gopinath Bordoloi	Kamrup Sadar (South)	11 February 1946	25 January 1950	Template:Age in years and days	2nd Provincial (1946 election)	Indian National Congress	width="4px" style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Bordoloi II

Chief Ministers of Assam (1950Template:Ndashpresent)

• Template:Note label Died in office
• Template:Note label Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term

#	Portrait		Chief Minister Template:Small	Election	Term of office			Political party	Ministry
					From	To	Period
1	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	Error creating thumbnail:	Gopinath Bordoloi Template:Small	1946 Template:Small	26 January 1950	5 August 1950Template:Ref label	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Bordoloi
2	rowspan="3" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Bishnuram Medhi.jpg	Bishnuram Medhi Template:Small		9 August 1950	28 December 1957	Template:Ayd		Medhi I
	1952			Medhi II
	1957			Medhi III
3		rowspan="3" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Bimala Prasad Chaliha.jpg	Bimala Prasad Chaliha Template:Small	28 December 1957	11 November 1970	Template:Ayd		Chaliha I
	1962	Chaliha II
	1967	Chaliha III
4		bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Rajya Sabha photo.jpg	Mahendra Mohan Choudhry Template:Small	11 November 1970	31 January 1972	Template:Ayd		Choudhry
5	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Sarat Chandra Singha (cropped).jpg	Sarat Chandra Singha Template:Small	1972	31 January 1972	12 March 1978	Template:Ayd		Sinha
6	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Golap Borbora (denoised).jpg	Golap Borbora Template:Small	1978	12 March 1978	9 September 1979	Template:Ayd	Janata Party	Borbora
7	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Jogendra Nath Hazarika Lok Sabha photo.jpg	Jogendra Nath Hazarika Template:Small		9 September 1979	11 December 1979	Template:Ayd		Hazarika
Position vacant (12 December 1979Template:Snd5 December 1980) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn
8	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Syeda Anwara Taimur.jpg	Anwara Taimur Template:Small	Template:Ndash	6 December 1980	30 June 1981	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Taimur
Position vacant (30 June 1981Template:Snd13 January 1982) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn
9	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Seal of Assam.svg	Kesab Chandra Gogoi Template:Small	Template:Ndash	13 January 1982	19 March 1982	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Kesab
Position vacant (19 March 1982Template:Snd27 February 1983) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn
10	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Hiteswar Saikia with Shankar Dayal Sharma (cropped).jpg	Hiteswar Saikia Template:Small	1983	27 February 1983	24 December 1985	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Saikia I
11	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:The former Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Prafulla Kumar Mahanta calling on the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge), Dr. Mahesh Sharma, in New Delhi on July 20, 2017 (cropped).jpg	Prafulla Kumar Mahanta Template:Small	1985	24 December 1985	28 November 1990	Template:Ayd	Asom Gana Parishad	Mahanta I
Position vacant (28 November 1990Template:Snd30 June 1991) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn
(10)	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Hiteswar Saikia with Shankar Dayal Sharma (cropped).jpg	Hiteswar Saikia Template:Small	1991	30 June 1991Template:Ref label	22 April 1996Template:Ref label	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Saikia II
12	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Dr. Bhumidhar Barman, Former Chief Minister of Assam and Agriculture Adviser to the Chief Minister of Assam addressing at the Public Information Campaign on Bharat Nirman, organized by Press Information Bureau (cropped).jpg	Bhumidhar Barman Template:Small		22 April 1996	15 May 1996	Template:Ayd		Barman
(11)	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:The former Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Prafulla Kumar Mahanta calling on the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge), Dr. Mahesh Sharma, in New Delhi on July 20, 2017 (cropped).jpg	Prafulla Kumar Mahanta Template:Small	1996	15 May 1996Template:Ref label	18 May 2001	Template:Ayd	Asom Gana Parishad	Mahanta II
13	rowspan="3" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Tarun Gogoi - Kolkata 2013-02-10 4891 Cropped.JPG	Tarun Gogoi Template:Small	2001	18 May 2001	24 May 2016	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Tarun I
	2006			Tarun II
	2011			Tarun III
14	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Sarbananda Sonowal 2023.jpg	Sarbananda Sonowal Template:Small	2016	24 May 2016	10 May 2021	Template:Ayd	Bharatiya Janata Party	Sonowal
15	rowspan="2" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Himanta Biswa Sarma in 2025.jpg	Himanta Biswa Sarma Template:Small	2021	10 May 2021	Incumbent	Template:Age in years and days		Sarma
16	TBD	TBD	2026	TBD	TBD	Template:Age in years and days	TBD

Statistics

List by chief minister

#	Chief Minister	Party		Term of office
				Longest continuous term	Total duration of chief ministership
1	Tarun Gogoi	Template:Party name with color	15 years, 6 days	15 years, 6 days
2	Bimala Prasad Chaliha	Template:Party name with color	12 years, 318 days	12 years, 318 days
3	Prafulla Kumar Mahanta	Template:Party name with color	5 years, 3 days	9 years, 342 days
4	Hiteswar Saikia	Template:Party name with color	4 years, 297 days	7 years, 232 days
5	Bishnuram Medhi	Template:Party name with color	7 years, 141 days	7 years, 141 days
6	Sarat Chandra Sinha	Template:Party name with color	6 years, 40 days	6 years, 40 days
7	Himanta Biswa Sarma*	Template:Party name with color*	Template:Ayd*	Template:Ayd*
8	Sarbananda Sonowal	Template:Party name with color	4 years, 351 days	4 years, 351 days
9	Golap Borbora	Template:Party name with color	1 year, 181 days	1 year, 181 days
10	Mahendra Mohan Choudhry	Template:Party name with color	1 year, 81 days	1 year, 81 days
11	Anwara Taimur	Template:Party name with color	0 year, 206 days	0 year, 206 days
12	Gopinath Bordoloi	Template:Party name with color	0 year, 192 days	0 year, 192 days
13	Kesab Chandra Gogoi	Template:Party name with color	0 year, 65 days	0 year, 65 days
14	Jogendra Nath Hazarika	Template:Party name with color	0 year, 93 days	0 year, 93 days
15	Bhumidhar Barman	Template:Party name with color	0 year, 23 days	0 year, 23 days

Timeline

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Colors =

 id:inc    value:rgb(0,0.748,1) legend: INC
 id:jan    value:rgb(0.121,0.457,0.996) legend: JP
 id:agp    value:rgb(0.6,0.8,1) legend: AGP
 id:bjp    value:rgb(1,0.6,0.2) legend: BJP
 id:gray1  value:gray(0.8)
 id:gray2  value:gray(0.9)

Define $today = 29/07/2026

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1946 till:31/12/2041 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1946 ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1946

Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:150

TextData =

 pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M
 text: Political Party

BarData =

 bar:Bordoloi
 bar:Medhi
 bar:Chaliha
 bar:Choudhry
 bar:Singha
 bar:Borbora
 bar:Hazarika
 bar:Taimur
 bar:KCGogoi
 bar:Saikia
 bar:Mahanta
 bar:Barman
 bar:TGogoi
 bar:Sonowal
 bar:Sarma

PlotData =

 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

 bar:Bordoloi
from: 11/02/1946 till: 06/08/1950 color:inc text:"Gopinath Bordoloi" fontsize:11
 bar:Medhi
from: 09/08/1950 till: 27/12/1957 color:inc text:"Bishnuram Medhi" fontsize:11
 bar:Chaliha
from: 28/12/1957 till: 08/11/1970 color:inc text:"Bimala Prasad Chaliha" fontsize:11
 bar:Choudhry
from: 11/11/1970 till: 30/01/1972 color:inc text:"Mahendra Mohan Choudhry" fontsize:11
 bar:Singha
from: 31/01/1972 till: 12/03/1978 color:inc text:"Sarat Chandra Singha" fontsize:11
 bar:Borbora
from: 12/03/1978 till: 04/09/1979 color:jan text:"Golap Borbora" fontsize:11
 bar:Hazarika
from: 09/09/1979 till: 11/12/1979 color:jan text:"Jogendra Nath Hazarika" fontsize:11
 bar:Taimur
from: 06/12/1980 till: 30/06/1981 color:inc text:"Anwara Taimur" fontsize:11
 bar:KCGogoi
from: 13/01/1982 till: 19/03/1982 color:inc text:"Kesab Chandra Gogoi" fontsize:11
 bar:Saikia
from: 27/02/1983 till: 23/12/1985 color:inc 
from: 30/06/1991 till: 22/04/1996 color:inc text:"Hiteswar Saikia" fontsize:11
 bar:Mahanta
from: 24/12/1985 till: 28/11/1990 color:agp 
from: 15/05/1996 till: 17/05/2001 color:agp text:"Prafulla Kumar Mahanta" fontsize:11
 bar:Barman
from: 22/04/1996 till: 14/05/1996 color:inc text:"Bhumidhar Barman" fontsize:11
 bar:TGogoi
from: 18/05/2001 till: 24/05/2016 color:inc text:"Tarun Gogoi" fontsize:11
 bar:Sonowal
from: 24/05/2016 till: 10/05/2021 color:bjp text:"Sarbananda Sonowal" fontsize:11
 bar:Sarma
from: 10/05/2021 till: $today color:bjp text:"Himanta Biswa Sarma" fontsize:11

</timeline>

See also

• List of current Indian chief ministers
• List of governors of Assam