List of chief ministers of Puducherry

Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry
Putuccēri Mutalamaiccar
Emblem of Puducherry
Incumbent
N. Rangasamy
since 7 May 2021
Style
TypeHead of government
StatusLeader of the Executive
AbbreviationCMOPY
Member of
Reports to
AppointerLieutenant Governor of Puducherry
Formation1 July 1963; 61 years ago (1963-07-01)
First holderEdouard Goubert
WebsiteOfficial website

The chief minister of Puducherry is the chief executive of the Indian union territory of Puducherry. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the lieutenant governor is a union territory's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly, the lieutenant governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government. The lieutenant 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.[1]

Since 1963, Puducherry has had 10 chief ministers. The longest-serving and current chief minister, N. Rangasamy from All India N.R. Congress, held the office for over fifteen years in multiple tenures. The former governor of Kerala M. O. H. Farook has the second-longest tenure and V. Vaithilingam from the Indian National Congress has the third-longest tenure. The inaugural holder Edouard Goubert from the Indian National Congress has the shortest tenure (only 1 year, 71 days). There have been seven instances of president's rule in Puducherry, most recently in 2021.

The current incumbent is N. Rangasamy of the All India N.R. Congress since 7 May 2021.

List of chief counselors

Further information: First Representative Assembly of Pondicherry and Second Representative Assembly of Pondicherry

The French settlements in India were in a transition period between the de facto transfer day (i.e., 1 November 1954) and the de jure transfer day (i.e., 16 August 1962).[2] In January 1955, the government of India, by an order, renamed these four French settlements in India as the State of Pondicherry.[3] Both these transfer days are official holidays within the union territory of Puducherry.[4][5]

No. Portrait Name
(Birth–Death) 		Term in office
Assumed office Left office Time in office
1 Maurice Pakkiriswamy Pillai
(1906–1956) 		17 August 1955 13 January 1956 149 days
2 Edouard Goubert
(1894–1979) 		17 January 1956 24 October 1958 2 years, 280 days
– Vacant (25 October 1958 – 8 September 1959)
3 V. Venkatasubba Reddiar
(1909–1982) 		9 September 1959 30 June 1963 3 years, 294 days

List of chief ministers

On 10 May 1963, the government of India enacted the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, which came into force on 1 July 1963. This introduced the same pattern of government that prevailed in the rest of the country, but subject to certain limitations.[6] Under Article 239 of the Indian Constitution, the president of India appoints the lieutenant governor of Puducherry with such designation as he may specify to head the administration of the territory. The lieutenant governor appoints the chief minister. The lieutenant governor, on the advice of the chief minister, appoints the council of ministers.

Also, the representative assembly was converted into the legislative assembly of Pondicherry on 1 July 1963 as per Section 54(3) of The Union Territories Act, 1963 and its members were deemed to have been elected to the assembly.[7] Thus, the first legislative assembly was formed without an election. Elections for the assembly have been held since 1964.

No. Portrait Name

(Birth–Death)

Elected constituency Term of office[8] Assembly
(Election) 		Ministry Appointed by Political party[a]
Assumed office Left office Time in office
1 Edouard Goubert
(1894–1979) 		Mannadipet 1 July 1963 10 September 1964 1 year, 71 days 1st
(1959) 		Goubert S. K. Datta Indian National Congress
2 V. Venkatasubba Reddiar
(1909–1982) 		Nettapakkam 11 September 1964 9 April 1967[RES] 2 years, 210 days 2nd
(1964) 		Reddiar I S. L. Silam
3 M. O. H. Farook
(1937–2012) 		Karaikal North 9 April 1967 6 March 1968[RES] 332 days Farook I
(2) V. Venkatasubba Reddiar
(1909–1982) 		Nettapakkam 6 March 1968[§] 17 September 1968 195 days Reddiar II
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 18 September 1968 16 March 1969 179 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
(3) M. O. H. Farook
(1937–2012) 		Kalapet 17 March 1969[§] 2 January 1974 4 years, 291 days 3rd
(1969) 		Farook II B. D. Jatti Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 3 January 1974 5 March 1974 61 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
4 S. Ramassamy
(1939–2017) 		Karaikal South 6 March 1974 28 March 1974 22 days 4th
(1974) 		Ramassamy I Cheddi Lal All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 29 March 1974 1 July 1977 3 years, 94 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
(4) S. Ramassamy
(1939–2017) 		Karaikal South 2 July 1977[§] 12 November 1978 1 year, 133 days 5th
(1977) 		Ramassamy II B. T. Kulkarni All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 13 November 1978 15 January 1980 1 year, 63 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
5 M. D. R. Ramachandran
(1934–2024) 		Mannadipet 16 January 1980 23 June 1983[NC] 3 years, 158 days 6th
(1980) 		Ramachandran I B. T. Kulkarni Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 24 June 1983 15 March 1985 1 year, 264 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
(3) M. O. H. Farook
(1937–2012) 		Lawspet 16 March 1985[§] 7 March 1990 4 years, 356 days 7th
(1985) 		Farook III T. P. Tewary Indian National Congress
(5) M. D. R. Ramachandran
(1934–2024) 		Mannadipet 8 March 1990[§] 2 March 1991[NC] 359 days 8th
(1990) 		Ramachandran II Chandrawati Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 3 March 1991 3 July 1991 122 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
6 V. Vaithilingam
(1950–) 		Nettapakkam 4 July 1991 25 May 1996 4 years, 326 days 9th
(1991) 		Vaithilingam I Harswarup Singh Indian National Congress
7 R. V. Janakiraman
(1941–2019) 		Nellithope 26 May 1996 21 March 2000[NC] 3 years, 300 days 10th
(1996) 		Janakiraman Rajendra Kumari Bajpai Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
8 P. Shanmugam
(1927–2013) 		Yanam 22 March 2000 23 May 2001 1 year, 219 days Shanmugam I Rajani Rai Indian National Congress
24 May 2001 27 October 2001[RES] 11th
(2001) 		Shanmugam II
9 N. Rangasamy
(1950–) 		Thattanchavady 27 October 2001 12 May 2006 6 years, 313 days Rangasamy I
13 May 2006 4 September 2008[RES] 12th
(2006) 		Rangasamy II Madan Mohan Lakhera
(6) V. Vaithilingam
(1950–) 		Nettapakkam 4 September 2008[§] 15 May 2011 2 years, 253 days Vaithilingam II Govind Singh Gurjar
(9) N. Rangasamy
(1950–) 		Kadirkamam 16 May 2011[§] 5 June 2016 5 years, 20 days 13th
(2011) 		Rangasamy III Iqbal Singh All India N.R. Congress
10 V. Narayanasamy
(1947–) 		Nellithope 6 June 2016 22 February 2021[NC] 4 years, 261 days 14th
(2016) 		Narayanasamy Kiran Bedi Indian National Congress
– Vacant
(President's rule) 		N/A 23 February 2021 6 May 2021 72 days Dissolved N/A – N/A
(9) N. Rangasamy
(1950–) 		Thattanchavady 7 May 2021[§] Incumbent 3 years, 228 days 15th
(2021) 		Rangasamy IV Tamilisai Soundararajan All India N.R. Congress
Timeline
V. NarayanasamyN. RangasamyP. ShanmugamR. V. JanakiramanV. VaithilingamM. D. R. RamachandranS. RamassamyVacantM. O. H. FarookV. Venkatasubba ReddiarEdouard Goubert

Statistics

List of chief ministers by length of term
No. Name Party Length of term
Longest continuous term Total years of chief ministership
1 N. Rangasamy AINRC/INC 6 years, 313 days 15 years, 197 days
2 M. O. H. Farook INC/DMK 4 years, 356 days 10 years, 249 days
3 V. Vaithilingam INC 4 years, 326 days 7 years, 214 days
4 V. Narayanasamy INC 4 years, 261 days 4 years, 261 days
5 M. D. R. Ramachandran DMK 3 years, 158 days 4 years, 152 days
6 R. V. Janakiraman DMK 3 years, 300 days 3 years, 300 days
7 V. Venkatasubba Reddiar INC 2 years, 210 days 3 years, 40 days
8 S. Ramassamy AIADMK 1 year, 133 days 1 year, 155 days
9 P. Shanmugam INC 1 year, 219 days 1 year, 219 days
10 Edouard Goubert INC 1 year, 71 days 1 year, 71 days
List by party
Political parties by total time-span of their member holding CMO (21 December 2024)
No. Political party Number of chief ministers Total days of holding CMO
1 Indian National Congress 7 10319 days
2 All India N.R. Congress 1 3171 days
2 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 3 2568 days
4 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1 520 days
Parties by total duration (in days) of holding Chief Minister's Office
2,500
5,000
7,500
10,000
12,500
15,000
INC
AINRC
DMK
AIADMK

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This column only names the chief minister's party. The union territory government he heads may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these are not listed here.

References

  1. ^ Durga Das Basu. Introduction to the Constitution of India. 1960. 20th Edition, 2011 Reprint. pp. 241, 245. LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur. ISBN 978-81-8038-559-9. Note: although the text talks about Indian union territory governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Puducherry as well.
  2. ^ "Indian Affairs Record (Vol. I and II)". Diwan Chand Indian Information Center. 1955.
  3. ^ A. Moin Zaidi (1976). "The Encyclopaedia of Indian National Congress". S. Chand Publications. p. 229.
  4. ^ Shriman Narayan, K.P.Madhavan Nair (1956). "Report Of The General Secretaries". Indian National Congress.
  5. ^ "Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru" (PDF). Jawaharlal Nehru. Oxford University Press. 1961. p. 156.
  6. ^ G. C. Malhotra (2004). Cabinet Responsibility to Legislature. Lok Sabha Secretariat. ISBN 9788120004009.
  7. ^ Malhotra, G.C. (1964). Cabinet Responsibility to Legislature. Metropolitan Book Co. Pvt. Ltd. p. 464. ISBN 9788120004009.
  8. ^ The ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period