Chief Minister of Puducherry

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 lieutenant 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]

Chief Minister of Puducherry
Putuccēri Mutalamaiccar
Emblem of Puducherry
Incumbent N. Rangasamy since 7 May 2021
Style	The Honourable (formal) Mr. Chief Minister (informal)
Type	Head of government
Status	Leader of the Executive
Abbreviation	CMOPY
Member of	Puducherry Legislative Assembly Puducherry Council of Ministers
Reports to	Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Puducherry Legislative Assembly
Appointer	Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
Formation	1 July 1963; 62 years ago (1963-07-01)
First holder	Edouard Goubert
Website	Official website

Since 1963, Puducherry has had 10 chief ministers. The longest-serving and current chief minister, N. Rangasamy from the All India N.R. Congress, held the office for over sixteen years in multiple tenures. The former governor of Kerala M. O. H. Farook has the second-longest tenure, and V. Vaithilingam from the Indian National Congress has the third-longest tenure.^[2] The inaugural holder Edouard Goubert from the Indian National Congress has the shortest tenure (only 1 year, 71 days).^[3] 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.^[4]

List

Further information: 1st Pondicherry Representative Assembly and 2nd Pondicherry Representative Assembly

The French settlements in India were in a transition period between the de facto transfer day (i.e., 1 November 1954) and the de jure transfer day (i.e., 16 August 1962). In January 1955, the government of India, by an order, renamed these four French settlements in India as the State of Pondicherry. Both these transfer days are official holidays within the union territory of Puducherry.^[5][6]

Chief Counselors of Pondicherry
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term in office
			Assumed office	Left office	Time in office
1		Maurice Pakkiriswamy Pillai (1906–1956)	17 August 1955	13 January 1956	149 days
2		Edouard Goubert (1894–1979)	17 January 1956	24 October 1958	2 years, 280 days
–	Vacant (25 October 1958 – 8 September 1959)
3		V. Venkatasubba Reddiar (1909–1982)	9 September 1959	30 June 1963	3 years, 294 days

Enactment of the Government of Union Territories Act

On 10 May 1963, the government of India enacted the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, which came into force on 1 July 1963. It introduced the same pattern of government that prevailed in the rest of the country, but subject to certain limitations. Under Article 239 of the Indian Constitution, the president of India appoints the lieutenant governor of Puducherry with such designation as he may specify to head the administration of the territory. The lieutenant governor appoints the chief minister. The lieutenant governor, on the advice of the chief minister, appoints the council of ministers.^[7]

Also, the representative assembly was converted into the legislative assembly of Pondicherry on 1 July 1963 as per Section 54(3) of the Union Territories Act, 1963, and its members were deemed to have been elected to the assembly. Thus, the first legislative assembly was formed without an election. Elections for the assembly have been held since 1964.^[8]

Color key for political parties   All India N.R. Congress   Indian National Congress   Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam   All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Key RES Resigned † Died in office NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion § Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term

Chief Ministers of Puducherry
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Elected constituency	Term of office[a]			Assembly (Election)	Ministry	Appointed by	Political party[b]
				Assumed office	Left office	Time in office
1		Edouard Goubert (1894–1979)	Mannadipet	1 July 1963	10 September 1964	1 year, 71 days	1st (1959)	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)	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)	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		S. Ramassamy (1939–2017)	Karaikal South	6 March 1974	28 March 1974	22 days	4th (1974)	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)		S. Ramassamy (1939–2017)	Karaikal South	2 July 1977[§]	12 November 1978	1 year, 133 days	5th (1977)	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 (1934–2024)	Mannadipet	16 January 1980	23 June 1983[NC]	3 years, 158 days	6th (1980)	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)	Farook III	T. P. Tewary	Indian National Congress
(5)		M. D. R. Ramachandran (1934–2024)	Mannadipet	8 March 1990[§]	2 March 1991[NC]	359 days	8th (1990)	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 (b. 1950)	Nettapakkam	4 July 1991	25 May 1996	4 years, 326 days	9th (1991)	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)	Janakiraman	Rajendra Kumari Bajpai	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
8		P. Shanmugam (1927–2013)	Yanam	22 March 2000	23 May 2001	1 year, 219 days		Shanmugam I	Rajani Rai	Indian National Congress
				24 May 2001	27 October 2001[RES]		11th (2001)	Shanmugam II
9		N. Rangasamy (b. 1950)	Thattanchavady	27 October 2001	12 May 2006	6 years, 313 days		Rangasamy I
				13 May 2006	4 September 2008[RES]		12th (2006)	Rangasamy II	Madan Mohan Lakhera
(6)		V. Vaithilingam (b. 1950)	Nettapakkam	4 September 2008[§]	15 May 2011	2 years, 253 days		Vaithilingam II	Govind Singh Gurjar
(9)		N. Rangasamy (b. 1950)	Kadirkamam	16 May 2011[§]	5 June 2016	5 years, 20 days	13th (2011)	Rangasamy III	Iqbal Singh	All India N.R. Congress
10		V. Narayanasamy (b. 1947)	Nellithope	6 June 2016	22 February 2021[NC]	4 years, 261 days	14th (2016)	Narayanasamy	Kiran Bedi	Indian National Congress
–		Vacant (President's rule)	N/A	23 February 2021	6 May 2021	72 days	Dissolved	N/A	–	N/A
(9)		N. Rangasamy (b. 1950)	Thattanchavady	7 May 2021[§]	Incumbent	4 years, 92 days	15th (2021)	Rangasamy IV	Tamilisai Soundararajan	All India N.R. Congress

Timeline

Statistics

List of chief ministers by length of term

No.	Name	Party		Length of term
				Longest continuous term	Total years of chief ministership
1	N. Rangasamy	AINRC/INC		6 years, 313 days	16 years, 61 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	S. Ramassamy	AIADMK		1 year, 133 days	1 year, 155 days
9	P. Shanmugam	INC		1 year, 219 days	1 year, 219 days
10	Edouard Goubert	INC		1 year, 71 days	1 year, 71 days

List by party

Political parties by total time-span of their member holding CMO (7 August 2025)

No.	Political party	Number of chief ministers	Total days of holding CMO
1	Indian National Congress	7	10319 days
2	All India N.R. Congress	1	3400 days
2	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	3	2568 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

AINRC

DMK

AIADMK

•   INC
•   AINRC
•   DMK
•   AIADMK

See also

• History of Puducherry
• Elections in Puducherry
• Puducherry Legislative Assembly
• Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
• List of current Indian chief ministers
• List of speakers of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly
• List of leaders of the opposition in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly

Notes

1. The ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period.
2. This column only names the chief minister's party. The union territory government he heads may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these are not listed here.