Chief Minister of West Bengal is the chief executive of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Like every Indian state, the Chief Minister of West Bengal is elected by State Legislative Assembly Election for a term of 5 years according to Indian Constitution.
In 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 had 8 Chief Ministers, starting with Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress (INC) party. The present Chief Minister of West Bengal is Mamata Banerjee who is ruling the government of West Bengal since 2011 till now.
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh is the first Chief Minister of West Bengal from 15th August 1947 to 22nd January 1948. He belonged to the Indian National Congress. He was again elected as Chief Minister of West Bengal in 1967 and served till February 1968. He was also a prominent freedom fighter.
Bidhan Chandra Roy
Bidhan Chandra Roy is the second Chief Minister of West Bengal who served for 14 years. He was elected from Indian National Congress and took office on 23rd January 1948 and left on 25th January 1950then again from 26th January1950 to 30th March 1952, 31st March 1952 to 5th April 1957, 6th April 1957 to 2nd April 1962 and lastly from 3rd April 1962 to 1st July 1962.
Prafulla Chandra Sen
Prafulla Chandra Sen became third Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2nd July 1962 and left on 28th February 1967. Prafulla Chandra Sen represented the political party of Indian National Congress.
Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee
Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee became fourth Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1st March 1967 to 21st November 1967. He represented the political party of Bangla Congress in United Front. He was again elected as Chief Minister from 25th February 1969 to 30th July 1970 and for the third time from 2nd April 1971 to 25th June 1971.
President"s Rule in West Bengal
First President"s Rule in West Bengal was from 20th February 1968 to 25th February 1969. The second President"s Rule was imposed in West Bengal from 1970 to 1971. The state of West Bengal faced President"s Rule for third and fourth time for a same duration of 51 days.
Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray became fifth Chief Minister of West Bengal from 20th March 1972 to 30th April 1977. He was from Indian National Congress.
Jyoti Basu
Jyoti Basu became sixth Chief Minister of West Bengal. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal. He was elected as Chief Minister for five times from 21st June 1977 to 5th November 2000. He represented Marxist Communist Party of India (CPIM).
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya became seventh Chief Minister of West Bengal from 6th November 2000. He was elected as the Chief Minister for two times consecutively and served till 13th May 2011.
Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee became the eighth and present Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is also the first lady Chief Minister of West Bengal who was elected as Chief Minister twice in 2011 and 2016 consecutively. Mamata Banerjee represents the political party All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).