| Border: | parliamentary |
| Minister: | not prime |
| Post: | Chief Minister |
| Body: | West Bengal |
| Incumbent: | Mamata Banerjee |
| Incumbentsince: | 20 May 2011 |
| Office1: | 20 May 2011 |
| Insignia: | Emblem of West Bengal (2018-present).svg |
| Insigniacaption: | Seal of the State of West Bengal |
| Style: |
|
| Type: | Head of Government |
| Status: | Leader of the Executive |
| Abbreviation: | CM |
| Appointer: | Governor of West Bengal by convention based on appointees ability to command confidence in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly |
| Reportsto: | |
| Inaugural: | Prafulla Chandra Ghosh as Premier Bidhan Chandra Ray as Chief Minister |
| Formation: | |
| Residence: | 30-B, Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata[1] |
| Seat: | Nabanna, Howrah |
| Precursor: | Prime Minister of Bengal |
| Termlength: | At the confidence of the assembly |
| Termlength Qualified: | Chief Minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits.[2] |
| Nominator: | Members of the Government of West Bengal in West Bengal Legislative Assembly |
| Salary: |
|
| Deputy: | Deputy Chief Minister (vacant) |
The Chief Minister of West Bengal (IAST: Paścim Baṅgēr Mukhya Mantrī) 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 head of the Council of Ministers and appoints ministers. The chief minister, along with their cabinet, exercises executive authority in the state. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly.
On 17 August 1947, the 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 seven chief ministers, starting with Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress (INC) party as the premier (elected to lead the assembly while the chief minister is not appointed).[3] Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy in 1950 became the first formal Chief Minister of West Bengal after the implementation of the Indian Constitution. A period of political instability followed thereafter—West Bengal witnessed three elections, four coalition governments and three stints of President's rule between 1967 and 1972—before Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the INC served a five-year term.[4]
The landslide victory of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front in the 1977 election began Jyoti Basu's 23-year continuous reign as chief minister. The length of his tenure was an all-India record until 2018, when he was surpassed by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.[5] Basu's successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharya continued the communist rule in West Bengal for another decade, when the Left Front was defeated in the 2011 election by the Trinamool Congress, thereby ending the 34-year long rule of the Left Front government, a fact that was noted by the international media. Sworn in on 20 May 2011, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee is West Bengal's incumbent chief minister, the first woman to hold the office. She was subsequently voted to power in 2016 and 2021 assembly elections. She is the one of the two female incumbent Chief Minister in India at present (as per 2024).
| Portrait | Name | Tenure[6] | Duration | Assembly | Party | Appointedby (Governor) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 August 1947 | 22 January 1948 | days | Provincial Assembly (1946–52) | Indian National Congress | Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari | |||
| 2 | 23 January 1948 | 26 January 1950 | |||||||
| Portrait | Name | Constituency | Tenure | Assembly | Party | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (2) | Bidhan Chandra Roy | 26 January 1950 | 30 March 1952 | Provincial (1946 election) | Indian National Congress | ||||
| Bowbazar | 31 March 1952 | 5 April 1957 | 1st (1952 election) | ||||||
| 6 April 1957 | 2 April 1962 | 2nd(1957 election) | |||||||
| Chowrangee | 3 April 1962 | 1 July 1962 | 3rd (1962 election) | ||||||
| 3 | Prafulla Chandra Sen | Arambagh East | 2 July 1962 | 1 March 1967 | |||||
| 4 | Ajoy Mukherjee | Tamluk | 1 March 1967 | 4th(1967 election) | Bangla Congress | ||||
| (1) | Prafulla Chandra Ghosh | Jhargram | 20 February 1968 | Independent | |||||
| Vacant (President's rule) | N/A | 20 February 1968 | 25 February 1969 | Dissolved | N/A | ||||
| (4) | Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee | Tamluk | 25 February 1969 | 19 March 1970 | 5th (1969 election) | Bangla Congress | |||
| Vacant (President's rule) | N/A | 19 March 1970 | 30 July 1970 | N/A | |||||
| 30 July 1970 | 2 April 1971 | Dissolved | |||||||
| (4) | Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee | Tamluk | 2 April 1971 | 29 June 1971 | 6th(1971 election) | Indian National Congress | |||
| Vacant (President's rule) | N/A | 29 June 1971 | 20 March 1972 | Dissolved | N/A | ||||
| 5 | Siddhartha Shankar Ray | Maldah | 20 March 1972 | 30 April 1977 | 7th(1972 election) | Indian National Congress | |||
| Vacant (President's rule) | N/A | 30 April 1977 | 21 June 1977 | Dissolved | N/A | ||||
| 6 | Jyoti Basu | Satgachhia | 21 June 1977 | 23 May 1982 | 8th(1977 election) | Communist Party of India (Marxist) | |||
| 24 May 1982 | 29 March 1987 | 9th(1982 election) | |||||||
| 30 March 1987 | 18 June 1991 | 10th(1987 election) | |||||||
| 19 June 1991 | 15 May 1996 | 11th (1991 election) | |||||||
| 16 May 1996 | 6 November 2000 | 12th(1996 election) | |||||||
| 7 | Buddhadeb Bhattacharya | Jadavpur | 6 November 2000 | 14 May 2001 | |||||
| 15 May 2001 | 17 May 2006 | 13th(2001 election) | |||||||
| 18 May 2006 | 20 May 2011 | 14th (2006 election) | |||||||
| 8 | Mamata Banerjee | Bhabanipur | 20 May 2011 | 25 May 2016 | 15th (2011 election) | Trinamool Congress | |||
| 26 May 2016 | 4 May 2021 | 16th(2016 election) | |||||||
| 5 May 2021 | Incumbent | 17th (2021 election) | |||||||
| Name | Party | Length of term | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longest continuous term | Total years of premiership | |||||
| data-sort-value="1" | 1 | Jyoti Basu | CPI(M) | 23 years, 137 days | 23 years, 137 days | |
| data-sort-value="2" | 2 | Bidhan Chandra Roy | INC | 12 years, 156 days | 14 years, 159 days | |
| data-sort-value="3" | 3 | Mamata Banerjee | TMC | |||
| data-sort-value="4" | 4 | Buddhadeb Bhattacharya | CPI(M) | 10 years, 188 days | 10 years, 188 days | |
| data-sort-value="5" | 5 | Siddhartha Shankar Ray | INC | 5 years, 41 days | 5 years, 41 days | |
| data-sort-value="7" | 6 | Prafulla Chandra Sen | INC | 4 years, 234 days | 4 years, 234 days | |
| data-sort-value="6" | 7 | Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee | 1 year, 19 days | 2 years, 6 days | ||
| data-sort-value="8" | 8 | Prafulla Chandra Ghosh | IND / INC | 160 days | 250 days | |