List of chief ministers of Puducherry

Chief Minister of Union Territory of Puducherry
Chief Minister of Union Territory of Puducherry
புதுச்சேரி முதலமைச்சர் పుదుచ్చేరి ముఖ్యమంత్రి പുതുച്ചേരി മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി
	Emblem of Puducherry
	Incumbent; N. Rangasamy; since 7 May 2021; (2 years ago)
Style	The Honourable
Status	Head of Government
Abbreviation	CM
Member of	Puducherry Legislative Assembly; ; Cabinet;
Appointer	Lieutenant governor of Puducherry
Term length	At the confidence of the assembly; 5 years and is subject to no term limits.
Inaugural holder	Edouard Goubert
Formation	5 March 1978; (45 years ago)
Website	py.gov.in

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 union territory's 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 thirteen years in multiple tenure. The former Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation M. O. H. Farook has the second-longest tenure and V. Vaithilingam from Indian National Congress has the third-longest tenure. The inaugural holder Édouard Goubert 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 ministers of State of Pondicherry (Between 1954 and 1963)

The French settlements in India were in transition period between the de facto transfer day (i.e. 1 October 1954) and the de-jure transfer day (i.e. 16 August 1962). In January 1955, The Indian union government by an order renamed these four French settlements in India as State of Pondicherry.^[2]^: 20 Both these transfer days are official holidays within the UT of Puducherry.

The list of chief ministers:

1. Maurice Pakkiriswamy Pillai from 17 August 1955^[3] to 13 January 1956^[4]^: 64–65
2. Édouard Goubert from 1956^[5] to 24 October 1958
(The chief commissioner rule between 28 October 1958^[6]^: 966 and August 1959)
3. V. Venkatasubba Reddiar from 9 September 1959 to 30 June 1963^[6]^: 978

List of chief ministers of Puducherry UT (since 1963)

The Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 that came into force on 1 July 1963 and the state of Pondicherry got converted into the Union territory with effect from the same day. Also, its Representative Assembly was converted into Legislative Assembly.

Legend

All India N.R. Congress

Indian National Congress

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Key

^RES Resigned
^† Assassinated or died in office
^NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion
^§ Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Elected Constituency	Term of office^[7]			Assembly (Election)	Ministry	Appointed by	Political Party^[a] (Alliance)
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Elected Constituency	Assumed Office	Left Office	Time in Office	Assembly (Election)	Ministry	Appointed by	Political Party^[a] (Alliance)
1		Edouard Goubert (1894–1979)	Mannadipet	1 July 1963	10 September 1964	1 year, 71 days	1st (1959 election)	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 election)	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 election)	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	File:S. Ramassamy.jpg	S. Ramassamy (1939–2017)	Karaikal South	6 March 1974	28 March 1974	22 days	4th (1974 election)	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)	File:S. Ramassamy.jpg	S. Ramassamy (1939–2017)	Karaikal South	2 July 1977^[§]	12 November 1978	1 year, 133 days	5th (1977 election)	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 (Unknown)	Mannadipet	16 January 1980	23 June 1983^[NC]	3 years, 158 days	6th (1980 election)	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 election)	Farook III	T. P. Tewary	Indian National Congress
(5)		M. D. R. Ramachandran (Unknown)	Mannadipet	8 March 1990^[§]	2 March 1991^[NC]	359 days	8th (1990 election)	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 election)	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 election)	Janakiraman	Rajendra Kumari Bajpai	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
8		P. Shanmugam (1927–2013)	Yanam	22 March 2000	23 May 2001	1 year, 219 days	10th (1996 election)	Shanmugam I	Rajani Rai	Indian National Congress
8		P. Shanmugam (1927–2013)	Yanam	24 May 2001	27 October 2001^[RES]	1 year, 219 days	11th (2001 election)	Shanmugam II
9		N. Rangasamy (1950–)	Thattanchavady	27 October 2001	12 May 2006	6 years, 313 days	11th (2001 election)	Rangasamy I
9		N. Rangasamy (1950–)	Thattanchavady	13 May 2006	4 September 2008^[RES]	6 years, 313 days	12th (2006 election)	Rangasamy II	Madan Mohan Lakhera
(6)		V. Vaithilingam (1950–)	Nettapakkam	4 September 2008^[§]	15 May 2011	2 years, 253 days	12th (2006 election)	Vaithilingam II	Govind Singh Gurjar
(9)		N. Rangasamy (1950–)	Kadirkamam	16 May 2011^[§]	5 June 2016	5 years, 20 days	13th (2011 election)	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 election)	Narayanasamy	Kiran Bedi	Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance)
–		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	2 years, 165 days	15th (2021 election)	Rangasamy IV	Tamilisai Soundararajan	All India N.R. Congress (National Democratic Alliance)

Statistics

List of chief ministers by length of term

No.	Name	Party		Length of term
No.	Name	Party		Longest continuous term	Total years of premiership
1	N. Rangasamy		AINRC/INC	6 years, 313 days	14 years, 133 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	P. Shanmugam		INC	1 year, 219 days	1 year, 219 days
9	S. Ramassamy		AIADMK	1 year, 133 days	1 year, 155 days
10	Edouard Goubert		INC	1 year, 71 days	1 year, 71 days

Timeline

List by party

Political parties by total time-span of their member holding CMO (19 October 2023)
No.	Political party	Number of Chief ministers	Total days of holding CMO
1	Indian National Congress	7	11302 days
2	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	3	4760 days
3	All India N.R. Congress	1	2742 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

DMK

AINRC

AIADMK

Living former chief ministers

As of 19 October 2023, there were two living former chief ministers of union territory of Puducherry, in order of service, are:

V. Vaithilingam
(1991–1996, 2008–2011)
(1950-10-05) 5 October 1950 (age 73)
V. Narayanasamy
(2016–2021)
(1947-05-30) 30 May 1947 (age 76)

The most recent death of a former chief minister was that of R. V. Janakiraman on 10 June 2019, aged 78.

Notes

Footnotes

^ This column only names the chief minister's party in some cases. The union territory government he heads may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these may not be 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. Note: although the text talks about Indian union territory governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Puducherry as well.
^ "Indian Affairs Record (Vol. I and II)". Diwan Chand Indian Information Center. 1955.
^ "The Encyclopaedia of Indian National Congress". A. Moin Zaidi. S. Chand Publications. 1976. p. 229.
^ Shriman Narayan, K.P.Madhavan Nair (1956). "Report Of The General Secretaries". Indian National Congress.
^ "Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru" (PDF). Jawaharlal Nehru. Oxford University Press. 1961. p. 156.
^ ^a ^b Cabinet Responsibility to Legislature. G. C. Malhotra. Lok Sabha Secretariat. 2004. ISBN 9788120004009.
^ The ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period

List of chief ministers of Puducherry

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