List of Chief Ministers of West Bengal

The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the chief executive of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. As per 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 West Bengal 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 that he has the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits.

West Bengal origins lie in Bengal, a province of the British Raj that included present-day Bangladesh. Between 1937 and 1947 it was intermittently governed by a popularly elected ministry, whose head is often designated the Premier of Bengal. In 1947, Bengal province was partitioned into the Indian state of West Bengal and East Pakistan. All three erstwhile Bengal premiers—A. K. Fazlul Huq, Khawaja Nazimuddin and H. S. Suhrawardy—became Pakistani citizens; the latter two went on to become Prime Ministers of Pakistan in the 1950s.

Since 1947, there have been eight Chief Ministers of West Bengal. The first was Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress, who was succeeded by his party-mates Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prafulla Chandra Sen. A decade of instability followed, marred by fractious coalition governments and frequent impositions of President's rule. The instability ended with 1977 election victory of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM). Headed by Jyoti Basu, the CPM-led Left Front government was in office for over 23 years (1977–2000), making Basu India's longest-serving chief minister ever. Left rule in West Bengal continued for another 10 years under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, before its defeat in the 2011 election by the Trinamool Congress. Appointed on 20 May 2011, Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee is the current incumbent, the state's first woman chief minister.