In the Republic of India, a chief minister is the head of government of each of the twenty-eight states and three of the eight union territories. According to the Constitution of India, at the state level, the governor is de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the state legislative assembly, the governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the state government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Out of the thirty incumbents, except Tamil Nadu's M. K. Stalin, all other chief ministers also act as the leader of the house in their legislative assemblies. Given they have the assembly's confidence, the chief minister's term is usually for a maximum of five years; there are no limits to the number of terms they can serve. [1]
Mamata Banerjee the Chief Minister of West Bengal, who has the longest continuous incumbency serving since 20 March 2011 (for 13 years, 277 days) and Rekha Gupta of NCT Delhi are the only two incumbent female Chief Ministers.
Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan (aged 79) is the oldest and Pema Khandu (aged 45), the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh is the youngest.
Nitish Kumar of Bihar has served for the most terms (nine). [a] [2]
Fourteen Incumbents belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party and three to the Indian National Congress, No other party has more than one chief minister in office. At present one state is under president rule.