List of chief ministers from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Last updated

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M) or CPM) is a communist political party in India that formed as the result of a split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964. [1] It has the status of a "national party" in India and has headed state governments in three of the states in the country.

Contents

A chief minister is the head of government of each of the twenty-eight states and three union territories (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry). 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 state 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 the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits. [2]

As of March 2020, nine people from the CPI(M) have held the position of a chief minister — four in Kerala, three in Tripura, and two in West Bengal, out of which only one — Pinarayi Vijayan is incumbent.

Kerala

NamePortraitTerm(s)Tenure(s) [lower-alpha 1]
E. M. S. Namboodiripad E. M. S. Namboodiripad.jpg 2 [lower-alpha 2] 6 March 1967-1 November 1969(2 years, 240 days)
E. K. Nayanar Ek nayanar.jpeg 325 January 198020 October 1981
(1 year, 268 days )
26 March 198717 June 1991
(4 years, 83 days)
20 May 199613 May 2001
(4 years, 358 days)
V. S. Achuthanandan Vs achutanandann.jpg 118 May 200614 May 2011(4 years, 361 days)
Pinarayi Vijayan * Pinarayi Vijayan 1.jpg 225 May 2016Incumbent

(8 years, 144 days)

Tripura

NamePortraitTerm(s)Tenure(s)
Nripen Chakraborty Nripen Chakraborty.jpg 25 January 19785 February 1988(10 years, 31 days)
Dasarath Deb Dasarath Deb1946.jpg 110 April 199311 March 1998(4 years, 335 days)
Manik Sarkar Manik Sarkar.jpg 411 March 19989 March 2018(19 years, 363 days)

West Bengal

NamePortraitTerm(s)Tenure(s)
Jyoti Basu Jyoti Basu - Calcutta 1996-12-21 089 Cropped.png 521 June 19775 November 2000(23 years, 137 days)
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Buddhadev Bhattacharjee.jpg 36 November 200013 May 2011(10 years, 188 days)

See also

Notes

  1. Sources:
    • Kerala: Official website of Kerala Legislature [3]
    • West Bengal: Official website of West Bengal Legislative Assembly [4]
    • Tripura: Legislative Bodies in India (an Indian government website) page on Tripura Legislative Assembly [5] and a news article for the date of end of Manik Sarkar's term. [6]
  2. Namboodiripad has served two terms as a chief minister; the first in 1957 as a CPI leader and second in 1967 as a CPI(M) leader. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of India (Marxist)</span> Political party in India

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the national parties of India. The party was founded through a splitting from the Communist Party of India in 1964 and it quickly became the dominant faction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of India</span> Political party in India

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest communist party in India. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur on 26 December 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Left Democratic Front</span> Political party in India

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately for the last four decades. LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, 2016 and had a historic re-election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI and various smaller parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jyoti Basu</span> Indian politician (1914-2010)

Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the member of Politburo of the party since its formation in 1964 till 2008. He was also the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been the India's longest serving chief minister in an elected democracy, at the time of his resignation. He declined the post of Prime Minister after the 1996 Indian general election after the CPM refused to let him head a multi-party coalition as would not be able to implement Marxist programs and relinquished the prime ministership to Deve Gowda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinarayi Vijayan</span> 12th Chief Minister of Kerala

Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician who serves as the Chief Minister of Kerala since 25 May 2016. A member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) (1998–2015). He has also served as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives during the third E. K. Nayanar ministry. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. He is the first chief minister from Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term in office. In 2022, he also became the longest-continuous serving chief minister of Kerala surpassing C. Achutha Menon who had been the first to remain in office for 2364 consecutive days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of Kerala</span> Indian State Government

The Government of Kerala, also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the cabinet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communism in India</span>

Communism in India has existed as a social or political ideology as well as a political movement since at least as early as the 1920s. In its early years, communist ideology was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions. Eventually, communist parties became ensconced in national party politics, sprouting several political offshoots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Left Front (West Bengal)</span> Political party in India

The Left Front is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was formed in January 1977, the founding parties being the Communist Party of India (Marxist), All India Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India and the Biplobi Bangla Congress. Other parties joined in later years, most notably the Communist Party of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election</span> Assembly election in West Bengal

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1982. The Left Front, which had won the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, emerged victoriously. The Indian National Congress emerged as the main opposition party in the state, as the Janata Party was disintegrating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1991 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election</span>

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1991. The election took place simultaneously with the 1991 Indian general election. The term of the assembly elected in 1987 lasted until February 1992, but the West Bengal Government asked the Election Commission of India to arrange the election at an earlier date.

The Left Front is a political alliance in the Indian state of Tripura. The Left Front governed Tripura 1978–1988, and again from 1993 to 2018. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the dominant party in the coalition. The other members of the Left Front are the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the All India Forward Bloc.

Sudhindranath Kumar was an Indian politician, belonging to the Revolutionary Communist Party of India. He served as general secretary of the party 1960–1984, represented Howrah Central constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and served as Food Minister of the state in 1969 and 1977–1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1971 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election</span> Assembly Election of West Bengal, India

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1971. The assembly election was held alongside the 1971 Indian general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election</span> 2018 assembly elections in Tripura

The 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election was held on 18 February for 59 of the state's 60 constituencies. The counting of votes took place on 3 March 2018. With 43.59% of the vote, the BJP secured a majority of seats (36) and subsequently formed the government with Biplab Kumar Deb as Chief Minister. The former governing Left Front alliance while receiving 44.35% of the vote secured only 16 seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election</span> State assembly election in india

Elections were held in Indian state of West Bengal in February 1969 to elect 280 members to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. United Front formed the government with Ajoy Mukherjee as the Chief Minister. United Front won a landslide 214 seats and 49.7% of the votes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 split in the Communist Party of India</span> Conflict between Leftists, Centrists and Rightists

In 1964, a major split occurred in the Communist Party of India. The split was the culmination of decades of tensions and factional infighting. When India became independent in 1947, differences arose of how to adapt to the new situation. As relations between the Nehru government and the Soviet Union improved, a faction that sought cooperation with the dominant Indian National Congress emerged within CPI. This tendency was led by S.A. Dange, whose role in the party hierarchy became increasingly controversial. When the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962 Dange's opponents within CPI were jailed, but when they were released they sought to challenge his leadership. In 1964 the party was finally divided into two, with the left faction forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The split had a lot of regional variations. It also impacted other organizations, such as trade union and peasant movements. The split has been studied extensively by scholars, who have sought to analyze the various domestic and international factors involved.

References

  1. Daniyal, Shoaib (26 April 2015). "As CPI and CPI-M mull merger, a short history of how they split up in the first place". Scroll.in. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  2. Basu, Durga Das (2011) [1st pub. 1960]. Introduction to the Constitution of India (20th ed.). LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur. pp. 241–245. ISBN   978-81-8038-559-9. Note: although the text talks about Indian state governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Chhattisgarh as well.
  3. "Chief Ministers". Kerala Legislature. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  4. "Premiers and Chief Ministers of West Bengal". West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2018. Note: The website link may not work as it has few glitches; only the archive link works. Also, the source has few errors regarding the tenure of Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee; the correct dates are provided in the "Origin and Growth" section of the given website.
  5. "Tripura Legislative Assembly". Legislative Bodies in India. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  6. "Biplab Kumar Deb takes oath as Tripura CM". Business Line . 9 March 2018. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  7. Krishnakumar, R. (4 April 1998). "Farewell to EMS". Frontline. Thiruvananthapuram. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.