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Chief Ministers of India: Here is the list of all 30
A chief minister’s term lasts five years, however there are no restrictions on the number of times an official can be reelected. As such, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik has been in office since March 2000 having served as chief minister for over 19 years.
A stark gender disparity also stands out. Among the 30 heads of state, only one is a woman — Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
Aside from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, no longer political party has more than one chief minister in office.
Here’s a short introduction to all the current ruling CMs of Indian states and UTs:
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy
Age: 47
Reddy is the founding leader of the YSR Congress Party.
Yeduguri Sandinti Jaganmohan Reddy, the 17th chief minister and current serving chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The son of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who was the 14th CM of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy wanted to continue his father’s legacy after his demise in 2009 and decided to form a new party.
Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh: Pema Khandu
Age: 40
Pema Khandu’s government has a record of switching party affiliation thrice within the period of one year. His government changed the party affiliation from Congress to the People's Party of Arunachal and then to BJP, which was in power at the time.
Khandu started his career as a politician after his father Dorjee Khandu, who was the former CM of Arunachal Pradesh died in a helicopter accident in 2011. Khandu was then appointed as a Cabinet Minister for Water Resource Development and Tourism in the state government.
Chief Minister of Assam: Sarbananda Sonowal
Age: 58
In the last 14 terms of the Government of Assam, Congress had the monopoly with ten terms of Congress leaders. Sarbananda Sonowal is the first BJP leader to be elected as the CM of Assam.
Sonowal started his career as a politician in 2001 and since then has been holding different positions across BJP.
Chief Minister of Bihar: Nitish Kumar
Age: 68
Nitish Kumar's government is well known for the initiative where they offered bicycle and meal programs. They donated bicycles to girls who stayed in school and as a result, the state got a huge number of girls into schools and saw a reduction in school dropout rates.
Chief Minister of Chattisgarh: Bhupesh Baghel
Age: 58
Bhupesh Baghel is a member of Indian National Congress and the current president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Baghel is well known for fulfilling his two major poll promises of farm loan waiver and raising paddy support price by 50%.
Chief Minister of Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal
Age: 51
Arvind Kejriwal took over the charge as a chief minister for the third time after winning a 62 seat majority in Delhi elections 2020.
The IIT-Kharagpur graduate gained popularity in 2011 during the anti-corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare for the Jan Lokpal (Ombudsman) Bill. A former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, he founded the NGO Parivartan in December 1999. In 2006, Kejriwal was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his use of the Right to Information Act to combat corruption.
Chief Minister of Goa: Pramod Sawant
Age: 46
The BJP leader Pramod Sawant represents the Sanquelim constituency in the Goa Legislative Assembly. He also served as the Speaker of the Goa State Assembly elected in March 2017, during late Manohar Parrikar's tenure.
Chief Minister of Gujarat: Vijay Ramniklal Rupani
Age: 63
Vijay Ramniklal Rupani started his career as a student activist in Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and subsequently joined RSS and Jan Sangh in 1971.
In August 2014, when a then-incumbent speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Vajubhai Vala resigned as the MLA from Rajkot West, Vijay Rupani was nominated by the BJP to contest his vacant seat. He won the poll on 19 October 2014 by a huge margin.
Chief Minister of Haryana: Manohar Lal Khattar
Age: 65
Manohar Lal Khattar has received backlash and criticism for his remarks on women and religious issues. During his election campaign for 2014 polls in India, he said, "If they (women) want freedom, why don't they just roam around naked? Freedom has to be limited."
He faced controversy again when he said, “Muslims can continue to live in this country, but they will have to give up eating beef. The cow is an article of faith here.”
Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh: Jai Ram Thakur
Age: 55
Jai Ram Thakur, the fifth time MLA is the current ruling CM of Himachal Pradesh. The BJP candidate Thakur won his first election under the flag of ABVP during his graduation, beginning his long association with the student organization.
Chief Minister of Jharkhand: Hemant Soren
Age: 44
Hemant Soren is the fifth and current ruling CM of Himachal Pradesh. Soren was re-elected as the CM after a year of a stint in 2013.
Soren is a vocal supporter of the call for banning liquor in Jharkhand on the footsteps of Bihar. “Now the government will open liquor outlets in villages, which will ultimately impact the lives of poor tribals in Jharkhand. I appeal to the rural residents of the state to not allow liquor outlets in their villages,” he said responding to the entry of retail liquor outlets in the state.
Chief Minister of Karnataka: B. S. Yediyurappa
Age: 77
B. S. Yediyurappa is the 19th and the historic fourth-time chief minister of Karnataka. In the history of Karnataka Yediyurappa is the only CM to serve three times as Leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
Yediyurappa is also an eight-time MLA from the Shikaripura constituency in Shimoga district.
Chief Minister of Kerala: Pinarayi Vijayan
Age: 75
Pinarayi Vijayan, the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI, is the current ruling CM of Kerala. Furthermore, his communist party designated him as the head of the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala on the day he completed 72 years.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Kamal Nath
Age: 73
Kamal Nath, the 18th CM of Madhya Pradesh, is the longest-serving and most senior member of the Lok Sabha.
Nath has close ties with the Nehru–Gandhi family, being young friends and schoolmates with Sanjay Gandhi, during his school days. In 2019 Nath was in controversy when the Income Tax Department conducted inspections at the properties of relatives and aides of CM Nath. The agency claimed to detect about 281 crore rupees in unaccounted cash, including 20 crores paid to the Congress headquarters in Delhi through hawala.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Uddhav Thackeray
Age: 59
Uddhav Bal Thackeray is the 19th and current CM of Maharashtra. He is also the president of Shiv Sena, a Marathi regional and Hindu nationalist political party.
Thackeray gained popularity when he was designated the chief of Shiv Sena by his father. After Thackeray secured the win of for his party in the 2002 Bombay Municipal Corporation elections, his father pushed for his involvement with Shiv Sena.
Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh
Age: 59
The journalist turned politician N. Biren Singh is the 12th and current ruling chief minister of Manipur. In 2016 Singh resigned from Congress to join the BJP.
Singh is recognised for launching the first state-level Ginger Festival at Parbung in Pherzawl District in April 2018. The festival played an important role in the promotion of agriculture in the hill district. Farmers have reported that since 2018 they are able to sell their organic ginger throughout the year.
Chief Minister of Meghalaya: Conrad Kongkal Sangma
Age: 42
Conrad Kongkal Sangma is the 12th and current chief minister of Meghalaya.
He was first elected to power during the 2008 state elections. Later, he held several important portfolios in the state cabinet including the finance, power, tourism, GAD and IT.
On becoming the chief minister, he presented his first annual budget for Meghalaya within ten days of his debut.
Chief Minister of Mizoram: Pu Zoramthanga
Age: 75
Pu Zoramthanga, the leader of Mizo National Front (MNF), is the current ruling CM of Mizoram. He has previously served as the chief minister of Mizoram from December 1998 to December 2008. However, his party lost the 2008 Assembly elections to the Congress, due to which he tendered his resignation before the maturity period.
Chief Minister of Nagaland: Neiphiu Rio
Age: 69
Neiphiu Rio, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party leader, is the current Chief Minister of Nagaland. Rio has taken over the charge for the fourth time in the 2014 Nagaland elections, before serving as a CM for terms 2002, 2007 and 2012.
Rio joined politics at a young age and served as the President of Kohima District United Democratic Front (UDF) Youth Wing in 1974. He was later appointed as the Chairman of Northern Angami Area Council in 1984.
Chief Minister of Odisha: Naveen Patnaik
Age: 73
Naveen Patnaik, the 14th and the current Chief Minister of Odisha is the longest-serving chief minister of any Indian state, holding the post for almost two decades. Patnaik is the third Indian CM to win five consecutive terms as a CM in India.
In 2019 despite a strong BJP wave across the country, Patnaik’s party Biju Janata Dal faired out and won as many as 112 seats out of 146 Legislative Assembly of Odisha.
Chief Minister of Puducherry: V. Narayanasamy
Age: 72
Velu Narayanasamy is the 10th and current Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry since June 2016.
Narayanasamy has a history of serving as a member of the Parliament, representing UT Puducherry in the Lok Sabha. He has also served as a Union Minister of State in the PMO during Manmohan Singh’s led government.
Chief Minister of Punjab: Amarinder Singh
Age: 77
Captain Amarinder Singh, 77, is the 15th and current serving chief minister of Punjab. It’s his second term in power after serving between 2002 to 2007. However, which his party lost to BJP candidate Prakash Singh Badal during the subsequent election.
Before joining politics, Singh served in the Indian Army from June 1963 to December 1966 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy.
Chief Minister of Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot
Age: 68
Ashok Gehlot is the 12th and the current ruling Chief Minister of Rajasthan since December 2018. Gehlot is currently serving his third term after being the CM of Rajasthan in 1998 and 2008.
Gehlot was largely influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi at a very young age and got actively engaged in social, political work as a student. During 1971's East Bengali refugees crisis, Gehlot served in the refugee camps in the eastern states of India.
Chief Minister of Sikkim: Prem Singh Tamang
Age: 52
Prem Singh Tamang is the current chief minister of Sikkim and the founder of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM). Prior to forming the party, he was a member of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) Party in Sikkim.
Tamang has served in ministerial roles in the Sikkim government for three consecutive terms including 1994 to 1999 as the Minister for Animal Husbandry, from 1999 to 2004 as the Minister for Industries and Animal Husbandry and From 2004 to 2009 as the Minister for Building and Housing Department in the Sikkim Government.
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu: Karuppa Gounder Palanisamy
Age: 65
Karuppa Gounder Palanisamy is the current chief minister of Tamil Nadu. He is also serving as the Convener of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a regional party in Tamil Nadu.
Palaniswami has a record of winning the assembly election to the state assembly four times, in 1989, 1991, 2011, and 2016.
Chief Minister of Telangana: Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao
Age: 66
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao is the first chief minister of Telangana, a new state formed after the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
Rao took oath as the chief minister of Telangana once again, for a second term, on 13 December 2018.
Chief Minister of Tripura: Biplab Kumar Deb
Age: 48
Biplab Kumar Deb is the current chief minister of Tripura. Deb led the BJP to victory in the 2018 Legislative Assembly Election, defeating Communist Party of India monopoly of the last 25 years.
In 2017, Biplab Deb was elected the president of Tripura state unit of BJP replacing Sudhndra Dasgupta, the BJP's longest-serving state president.
Chief Minister of UP: Yogi Adityanath
Age: 47
Yogi Adityanath, an Indian monk-turned-politician is the 22nd and current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
His tenure has been streaked with controversy like allegedly leading a 'purification' drive for the conversion of Christians to Hinduism.
In 2015, Adityanath called out for those who oppose yoga and said they could leave India and should be drowned.
Chief Minister of UK: Trivendra Singh Rawat
Age: 59
Trivendra Singh Rawat is the eighth and current ruling chief minister of Uttarakhand. Rawat was first elected from Doiwala in 2002 after the state was newly formed amid separation from UP.
He retained his seat in the 2007 elections and served as the State's Minister of Agriculture for the Uttarakhand government. In July 2019, Singh Rawat sparked controversy when he said that cow is the only animal that exhales oxygen — and that living in close proximity to cows could cure tuberculosis.
Chief Minister of West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee
Age: 65
Mamata Banerjee is eighth and the current ruling CM of West Bengal. Banerjee is the first woman to hold the CM office in West Bengal since 2011.
Banerjee has been the first female Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs, Sports, Women and Child Development in the cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. She was also listed as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine in 2012