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The chief minister is the chief executive of the Indian state. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the legislative assembly, the state's 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 she has the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits.^[1]

Since 1947, India has had 17 female chief ministers. The first woman to become chief minister was Sucheta Kripalani of the Indian National Congress party, who was sworn in on 2 October 1963 as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The longest-serving female chief minister was Sheila Dikshit from the Indian National Congress, who served as the chief minister of Delhi and held the office for over fifteen years. J. Jayalalithaa, former general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, served as chief minister of Tamil Nadu and has the second-longest tenure; she held the office until her death in 2016, becoming the first female chief minister to die in office, while V. N. Janaki Ramachandran of the same state and party has the shortest tenure (only 23 days). Only 12 states and 1 union territory in India had female chief ministers out of 28 states and 3 union territories that have legislature systems.

Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal and Atishi of National Capital Territory of Delhi are the incumbent female chief ministers in India.

Chronological list

Key

* Incumbent chief minister
^† Assassinated or died in office

^RES Resigned
^NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion

AAP (1) AIADMK (2) AITC (1) BSP (1) BJP (4) INC (5) JKPDP (1) MGP (1) RJD (1)
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office			State/Union territory	Political party^[a]
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Assumed office	Left office	Time in office	State/Union territory	Political party^[a]
1		Sucheta Kripalani (1908–1974)	2 October 1963	13 March 1967	3 years, 162 days	Uttar Pradesh	Indian National Congress
2		Nandini Satpathy (1931–2006)	14 June 1972	16 December 1976^[RES]	4 years, 185 days	Odisha	Indian National Congress
3		Shashikala Kakodkar (1935–2016)	12 August 1973	27 April 1979	5 years, 258 days	Goa	Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party
4		Anwara Taimur (1936–2020)	6 December 1980	30 June 1981	206 days	Assam	Indian National Congress
5		V. N. Janaki Ramachandran (1923–1996)	7 January 1988	30 January 1988	23 days	Tamil Nadu	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
6		J. Jayalalithaa (1948–2016)	24 June 1991	12 May 1996	14 years, 124 days
			14 May 2001	21 September 2001^[RES]
			2 March 2002	12 May 2006
			16 May 2011	27 September 2014
			23 May 2015	5 December 2016^[†]
7		Mayawati (1956–)	13 June 1995	18 October 1995	7 years, 5 days	Uttar Pradesh	Bahujan Samaj Party
			21 March 1997	21 September 1997^[RES]
			3 May 2002	29 August 2003^[RES]
			13 May 2007	15 March 2012
8		Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (1945–)	21 November 1996	12 February 1997	83 days	Punjab	Indian National Congress
9		Rabri Devi (1955–)	25 July 1997	11 February 1999	7 years, 190 days	Bihar	Rashtriya Janata Dal
			9 March 1999	2 March 2000^[RES]
			11 March 2000	6 March 2005
10		Sushma Swaraj (1952–2019)	12 October 1998	3 December 1998	52 days	National Capital Territory of Delhi	Bharatiya Janata Party
11		Sheila Dikshit (1938–2019)	3 December 1998	28 December 2013	15 years, 25 days	National Capital Territory of Delhi	Indian National Congress
12		Uma Bharti (1959–)	8 December 2003	23 August 2004^[RES]	259 days	Madhya Pradesh	Bharatiya Janata Party
13		Vasundhara Raje (1953–)	8 December 2003	13 December 2008	10 years, 9 days	Rajasthan
13		Vasundhara Raje (1953–)	13 December 2013	17 December 2018	10 years, 9 days	Rajasthan
14		Mamata Banerjee* (1955–)	20 May 2011	Incumbent	13 years, 238 days	West Bengal	All India Trinamool Congress
15		Anandiben Patel (1941–)	22 May 2014	7 August 2016^[RES]	2 years, 77 days	Gujarat	Bharatiya Janata Party
16		Mehbooba Mufti (1959–)	4 April 2016	19 June 2018	2 years, 76 days	Jammu and Kashmir	Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party
17		Atishi* (1981–)	21 September 2024	Incumbent	114 days	National Capital Territory of Delhi	Aam Aadmi Party

Statistics

List of female chief ministers by length of term

No.	Name	Party	Length of term
No.	Name	Party	Longest continuous term	Total years of chief ministership
1	Sheila Dikshit	INC	15 years, 25 days	15 years, 25 days
2	J. Jayalalithaa	AIADMK	4 years, 323 days	14 years, 124 days
3	Mamata Banerjee	AITC	13 years, 238 days	13 years, 238 days
4	Vasundhara Raje	BJP	5 years, 5 days	10 years, 9 days
5	Rabri Devi	RJD	4 years, 360 days	7 years, 190 days
6	Mayawati	BSP	4 years, 307 days	7 years, 5 days
7	Shashikala Kakodkar	MGP	5 years, 258 days	5 years, 258 days
8	Nandini Satpathy	INC	4 years, 185 days	4 years, 185 days
9	Sucheta Kripalani	INC	3 years, 162 days	3 years, 162 days
10	Anandiben Patel	BJP	2 years, 77 days	2 years, 77 days
11	Mehbooba Mufti	JKPDP	2 years, 76 days	2 years, 76 days
12	Uma Bharti	BJP	259 days	259 days
13	Anwara Taimur	INC	206 days	206 days
14	Atishi	AAP	114 days	114 days
15	Rajinder Kaur Bhattal	INC	83 days	83 days
16	Sushma Swaraj	BJP	52 days	52 days
17	V. N. Janaki Ramachandran	AIADMK	23 days	23 days

Notes

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

References

^ 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