today's Featured List/August 10, 2015

A chief minister is the head of government of each of twenty-nine states and two union territories (Delhi and Puducherry). 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 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 usually for a maximum of five years; there are no limits to the number of terms he/she can serve. Of the thirty-one current incumbents, four are women—Anandiben Patel in Gujarat, Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, and Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan. Serving since December 1994 (for 29 years, 134 days), Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling has the longest incumbency. Parkash Singh Badal (b. 1927) of Punjab is the oldest chief minister, while Uttar Pradesh's Akhilesh Yadav (b. 1973) is the youngest. Nine incumbents belong to the Indian National Congress and eight are from the Bharatiya Janata Party; no other party has more than one chief minister in office. (Full list...)