The chief minister of Odisha, an Indian state, is the head of the Government of Odisha. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is the state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Odisha 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 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 also serves as Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly.[2]

Brief History

On 1 April 1936, Orissa Province was formed. The first provincial government formed under Prime ministership of Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deo. He ruled until July 1937. Thereafter the All India Congress party leader Bishwanath Das took over the charge of Prime minister for two more years. Again Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati took the charge before he finally handed over to Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab in the year 1946.

After India got its independence under the new framework the Prime Minister or Premier position of provincial governments got abolished and the position of chief minister was created in 1950. Until the first election after independence, Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab continued to be the chief minister of Odisha and then it was taken over by Nabakrushna Choudhury. Here is the list of chief ministers of Odisha since 1946. Since 1946, Odisha has had 14 chief ministers. Serving from 2000 till 2024, Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal was the longest-serving chief minister in Odisha's history (He also the 1st never INC associated member to occupy the post). The current chief minister of Odisha since 12 June 2024 is Mohan Charan Majhi of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Prime Minister of Orissa (1937–1950)

# Portrait Name Constituency Tenure Assembly
(Election)		 Government Appointer
(Governor)		 Party
1 Krushna Chandra Gajapati Paralakhemundi 1 April 1937 19 July 1937 109 days 1st Provincial
(1937)		 Gajpati I Sir John Austen Hubback Independent
2 Bishwanath Das Ghumsur 19 July 1937 6 November 1939 2 years, 110 days Das I Indian National Congress
(1) Krushna Chandra Gajapati Paralakhemundi 24 November 1941 30 June 1944 2 years, 219 days Gajpati II Sir Hawthorne Lewis Independent
3 Harekrushna Mahatab East Bhadrak 23 April 1946 26 January 1950 3 years, 278 days 2nd Provincial
(1946)		 Mahtab I Chandulal Trivedi Indian National Congress

Chief Minister of Orissa/Odisha (1950–present)

# Portrait Name Constituency Tenure Assembly
(Election)		 Government Appointer
(Governor)		 Party[a]
1 Harekrushna Mahatab East Bhadrak 26 January 1950 12 May 1950 106 days 2nd Provincial
(1946 election)		 Mahtab I Chandulal Trivedi Indian National Congress
2 Nabakrushna Choudhuri North Kendrapara 12 May 1950 20 February 1952 6 years, 160 days Choudhuri I Asaf Ali
Barchana 20 February 1952 19 October 1956 1st
(1952 election)		 Choudhuri II Asaf Ali
(1) Harekrushna Mahatab Not Contested 19 October 1956 5 April 1957 4 years, 129 days Mahtab II Bhim Sen Sachar
Soro 6 April 1957 25 February 1961 2nd
(1957 election)		 Mahtab III Bhim Sen Sachar
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 25 February 1961 23 June 1961 118 days Dissolved N/A N/A N/A
3 Biju Patnaik Choudwar 23 June 1961 2 October 1963 2 years, 101 days 3rd
(1961 election)		 Biju I Yashwant Narayan Sukthankar Indian National Congress
4 Biren Mitra Cuttack City 2 October 1963 21 February 1965 1 year, 142 days Mitra Ajudhia Nath Khosla
5 Sadashiva Tripathy Umerkote 21 February 1965 8 March 1967 2 years, 15 days Tripathy Ajudhia Nath Khosla
6 Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo Bolangir 8 March 1967 9 January 1971 3 years, 307 days 4th
(1967 election)		 Singh Deo Ajudhia Nath Khosla Swatantra Party
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 9 January 1971 3 April 1971 84 days Dissolved N/A N/A N/A
7 Bishwanath Das Rourkela 3 April 1971 14 June 1972 1 year, 72 days 5th
(1971 election)		 Das II Shaukatullah Shah Ansari Independent
8 Nandini Satpathy Cuttack City 14 June 1972 3 March 1973 262 days Satpathy I Sardar Jogendra Singh Indian National Congress
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 3 March 1973 6 March 1974 1 year, 3 days Dissolved N/A N/A N/A
(8) Nandini Satpathy Dhenkanal 6 March 1974 16 December 1976 2 years, 285 days 6th
(1974 election)		 Satpathy II Basappa Danappa Jatti Indian National Congress
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 16 December 1976 29 December 1976 13 days N/A N/A N/A
9 Binayak Acharya Berhampur 29 December 1976 30 April 1977 122 days Acharya Siba Narain Sankar Indian National Congress
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 30 April 1977 26 June 1977 57 days Dissolved N/A N/A N/A
10 Nilamani Routray Basudevpur 26 June 1977 17 February 1980 2 years, 236 days 7th
(1977 election)		 Routray Harcharan Singh Brar Janata Party
– State Emblem of India Vacant[b]

(President's rule)

 N/A 17 February 1980 9 June 1980 113 days Dissolved N/A N/A N/A
11 Janaki Ballabh Patnaik Athagarh 9 June 1980 10 March 1985 9 years, 181 days 8th
(1980 election)		 Janaki I C. M. Poonacha Indian National Congress
10 March 1985 7 December 1989 9th
(1985 election)		 Janaki II Bishambhar Nath Pande
12 Hemananda Biswal Laikera 7 December 1989 5 March 1990 88 days Biswal I Saiyid Nurul Hasan
(3) Biju Patnaik Bhubaneswar 5 March 1990 15 March 1995 5 years, 10 days 10th
(1990 election)		 Biju II Yagya Dutt Sharma Janata Dal
(11) Janaki Ballabh Patnaik Begunia 15 March 1995 17 February 1999 3 years, 339 days 11th
(1995 election)		 Janaki III B. Satya Narayan Reddy Indian National Congress
13 Giridhar Gamang Laxmipur 17 February 1999 6 December 1999 292 days Gamang C. Rangarajan
(12) Hemananda Biswal Laikera 6 December 1999 5 March 2000 90 days Biswal II M. M. Rajendran
14 Naveen Patnaik Hinjili 5 March 2000 16 May 2004 24 years, 99 days 12th
(2000 election)		 Naveen I M. M. Rajendran Biju Janata Dal
16 May 2004 21 May 2009 13th
(2004 election)		 Naveen II M. M. Rajendran
21 May 2009 21 May 2014 14th
(2009 election)		 Naveen III Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare
21 May 2014 29 May 2019 15th
(2014 election)		 Naveen IV S. C. Jamir
29 May 2019 12 June 2024 16th
(2019 election)		 Naveen V Ganeshi Lal
15 Mohan Charan Majhi Keonjhar 12 June 2024 Incumbent 2 years, 33 days 17th
(2024 election)		 Majhi Raghubar Das Bharatiya Janata Party
  1. ↑ This column only names the chief minister's party. The state government he heads may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these are not listed here.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, in the event that a state government is unable to function according to constitutional provisions, the Central government can take direct control of the state machinery through the Governor. When President's rule is in force in a state, its council of ministers stands dissolved. The office of chief minister thus lies vacant. At times, the legislative assembly also stands dissolved.[3]

Statistics

Fraction of time of holding CMO by party in Odisha (as of 15 April 2026)
  1. Indian National Congress (48.9%)
  2. Biju Janata Dal (30.4%)
  3. Janata Dal (6.29%)
  4. Swatantra Party (4.80%)
  5. President's Rule (2.57%)
  6. Janata Party (3.31%)
  7. Bharatiya Janata Party (2.30%)
  8. Independent (1.50%)
# Chief Minister Party Term of office
Longest tenure Total tenure
1 Naveen Patnaik BJD 24 years, 99 days 24 years, 99 days
2 Janaki Ballabh Patnaik INC 9 years, 181 days 13 years, 155 days
3 Biju Patnaik JD/INC 5 years, 10 days 7 years, 111 days
4 Nabakrushna Choudhuri INC 6 years, 160 days 6 years, 160 days
5 Harekrushna Mahatab INC 4 years, 129 days 4 years, 236 days
6 Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo SWA 3 years, 307 days 3 years, 307 days
7 Nandini Satpathy INC 2 years, 285 days 3 years, 182 days
8 Nilamani Routray JP 2 years, 236 days 2 years, 236 days
9 Mohan Charan Majhi BJP 2 years, 33 days 2 years, 33 days
10 Sadashiva Tripathy INC 2 years, 15 days 2 years, 15 days
11 Biren Mitra INC 1 year, 142 days 1 year, 142 days
12 Bishwanath Das IND 1 year, 72 days 1 year, 72 days
13 Giridhar Gamang INC 292 days 292 days
14 Hemananda Biswal INC 90 days 178 days
15 Binayak Acharya INC 122 days 122 days

See also

References

  1. ↑ 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 state governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Odisha as well.
  2. ↑ https://apuat21.cgg.gov.in/web/legislative-assembly/leader-of-the-house
  3. ↑ Amberish K. Diwanji (15 March 2005). "A dummy's guide to President's rule". Rediff.com. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Minister_of_Odisha