Chief Minister of West Bengal

Template:Infobox political post

The Chief Minister of West Bengal (ISO: Template:Transliteration) is the de facto head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal, the subnational authority of the Indian state of West Bengal. The chief minister is the head of the Council of Ministers and advises the governor on the appointment of ministers. Along with the council of ministers, the chief minister exercises executive authority in the state. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The chief minister also serves as the Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly.

On 17 August 1947, the former British Indian province of Bengal was partitioned into the Pakistani province of East Bengal and the Indian state of West Bengal. Since then, West Bengal has had eight chief ministers. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress (INC) became the state's first head of government as premier before the office of chief minister formally came into effect. Following the adoption of the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy became the first chief minister of West Bengal. A period of political instability followed between 1967 and 1972, during which the state witnessed three assembly elections, four coalition governments and three periods of President's rule. Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the INC subsequently became the first chief minister after this phase to complete a full five-year term.

The victory of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front in the 1977 assembly election marked the beginning of 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal. Jyoti Basu served continuously as chief minister for over 23 years, the longest uninterrupted tenure by any chief minister in India at the time. His record was surpassed in 2018 by Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim. Basu was succeeded by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, under whom the Left Front remained in power until 2011.

In the 2011 assembly election, the Trinamool Congress defeated the Left Front, ending its 34-yearTemplate:Efn rule in the state, one of the longest-serving democratically elected communist governments in the world. The party's leader, Mamata Banerjee, was sworn in on 20 May 2011 as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal. She was subsequently re-elected in the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections.

In the 2026 assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a majority in the legislative assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress's 15-yearTemplate:Efn tenure in government. The new chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari is to take oath on 9 May 2026.

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:

photo of Writers' Building

Writers' Building, an 18th-century Company-era construction in Kolkata, traditionally served as the office of West Bengal's chief minister.

Premiers of West Bengal (1947–1950)

#	Portrait	Name	Tenure			Assembly Template:Small	Appointed by (Governor)	Party
1	photo of Prafulla Chandra Ghosh	Prafulla Chandra Ghosh	15 August 1947	22 January 1948	Template:Age in days days	Provincial Assembly (1946–52)Template:Efn Template:Small	C. Rajagopalachari	Indian National Congress	rowspan="3" width="4px" style="background-color: Template:Party color" |
2	File:Photograph of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal.jpg	Bidhan Chandra Roy	23 January 1948	26 January 1950	Template:Ayd

Chief Ministers of West Bengal (1950–present)

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

#Template:Efn	Portrait		Chief Minister Template:Small	Election	TenureTemplate:Efn			Political party	Ministry
					From	To	Period
1	rowspan="4" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Photograph of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal.jpg	Bidhan Chandra RoyTemplate:Ref label Template:Small Template:Small	ProvincialTemplate:Efn (1946 election)	26 January 1950	30 March 1952	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Roy I
	1952 (1st election)			31 March 1952	5 April 1957	Roy II
	1957 (2nd election)			6 April 1957	2 April 1962	Roy III
	1962 (3rd election)			3 April 1962	1 July 1962Template:Ref label	Roy IV
2		bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:PrafullaChandraSen.png	Prafulla Chandra Sen Template:Small Template:Small	2 July 1962	1 March 1967	Template:Ayd		Sen
3	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Ajoy Mukherjee.jpg	Ajoy MukherjeeTemplate:Ref label Template:Small Template:Small	1967 (4th election)	1 March 1967	21 November 1967	Template:Ayd	Bangla Congress	Mukherjee I
4	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Prafullachandra Ghosh at Writers' Building in 1947.jpg	Prafulla Chandra Ghosh Template:Small Template:Small		21 November 1967	20 February 1968	Template:Ayd	Independent	Ghosh
Position vacant (20 February 1968 – 25 February 1969) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn Template:Small
(3)	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Ajoy Mukherjee.jpg	Ajoy MukherjeeTemplate:Ref label Template:Small Template:Small	1969 (5th election)	25 February 1969	19 March 1970	Template:Ayd	Bangla Congress	Mukherjee II
Position vacant (19 March 1970 – 2 April 1971) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn Template:Small
(3)	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Ajoy Mukherjee.jpg	Ajoy Mukherjee Template:Small Template:Small	1971 (6th election)	2 April 1971	29 June 1971	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Mukherjee III
Position vacant (29 June 1971 – 20 March 1972) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn Template:Small
5	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:SiddharthaShankarRay.png	Siddhartha Shankar Ray Template:Small Template:Small	1972 (7th election)	20 March 1972	30 April 1977	Template:Ayd	Indian National Congress	Ray
Position vacant (30 April 1977 – 21 June 1977) President's rule was imposed during this periodTemplate:Efn Template:Small
6	rowspan="5" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Jyoti Basu - Calcutta 1996-12-21 089 Cropped.png	Jyoti Basu Template:Small Template:Small	1977 (8th election)	21 June 1977	23 May 1982	Template:Ayd	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	Basu I
	1982 (9th election)			24 May 1982	29 March 1987	Basu II
	1987 (10th election)			30 March 1987	18 June 1991	Basu III
	1991 (11th election)			19 June 1991	15 May 1996	Basu IV
	1996 (12th election)			16 May 1996	6 November 2000	Basu V
7		rowspan="3" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2009.jpg	Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Template:Small Template:Small	6 November 2000	14 May 2001	Template:Ayd		Bhattacharjee I
	2001 (13th election)	15 May 2001			17 May 2006	Bhattacharjee II
	2006 (14th election)	18 May 2006			20 May 2011	Bhattacharjee III
8	rowspan="3" bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	File:Ms. Mamata Banerjee, in Kolkata on July 17, 2018 (cropped) (cropped).JPG	Mamata Banerjee Template:Small Template:Small	2011 (15th election)	20 May 2011	25 May 2016	Template:Ayd	Trinamool Congress	Banerjee I
	2016 (16th election)			26 May 2016	4 May 2021	Banerjee II
	2021 (17th election)			5 May 2021	7 May 2026	Banerjee III
9	bgcolor="Template:Party color"|	Suvendu Adhikari at an event in Kolkata, 6 March 2024	Suvendu Adhikari Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small	2026 (18th election)	9 May 2026	Incumbent	Template:Ayd	Bharatiya Janata Party	Adhikari

Statistics

Timeline of Chief Minister

#	Name	Party		Length of term
				Longest tenure	Total tenure
1	Jyoti Basu	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	CPI(M)	Template:Age in years and days	Template:Age in years and days
2	Mamata Banerjee	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	TMC	Template:Ayd	Template:Ayd
3	Bidhan Chandra Roy	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	INC	12 years, 156 days	14 years, 159 days
4	Buddhadeb Bhattacharya	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	CPI(M)	Template:Age in years and days	Template:Age in years and days
5	Siddhartha Shankar Ray	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	INC	Template:Age in years and days	Template:Age in years and days
6	Prafulla Chandra Sen	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	INC	Template:Age in years and days	Template:Age in years and days
7	Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	BC / INC	1 year, 19 days	2 years, 6 days
8	Prafulla Chandra Ghosh	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	IND / INC	160 days	250 days
9	Suvendu Adhikari	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	BJP	Template:Age in years and days	Template:Age in years and days

Party-wise tenure over years

Party	Total tenure	Percentage
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	33 years, 333 days	44.74%
Indian National Congress	24 years, 325 days	32.84%
Trinamool Congress	14 years, 352 days	19.75%
Bangla Congress	1 years, 287 days	2.36%
Independent	91 days	0.33%
Bharatiya Janata Party	0 days	0%

See also

• History of Bengal
• Bengal Presidency
• List of rulers of Bengal
• Prime Minister of Bengal
• History of West Bengal
• List of governors of West Bengal
• List of deputy chief ministers of West Bengal
• West Bengal Legislative Assembly
• Elections in West Bengal
• Chief Minister (India)

Further reading

• "Left Front Government of Bengal: A Saga of Struggle" – a political history of West Bengal from the CPI(M)'s point of view