In the Republic of India, a chief minister is the head of government of each of the twenty-eight states and three of the eight union territories. 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 state government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Out of the thirty incumbents, except Tamil Nadu's M. K. Stalin, all other Chief Ministers also act as the leader of the house in their legislative assemblies. Given they have the assembly's confidence, the chief minister's term is usually for a maximum of five years; there are no limits to the number of terms they can serve.[1]
Two of the incumbents are women — Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, who has the longest continuous incumbency serving since 20 March 2011 (for 13 years, 185 days) and Atishi Marlena in Delhi. Atishi (aged 43) is the also the youngest incumbent chief minister, while Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan (aged 79) is the oldest. Nitish Kumar of Bihar has served for the most terms (nine).[a][2] Thirteen incumbents belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party, three to the Indian National Congress, and two to the Aam Aadmi Party. No other party has more than one chief minister in office.
Nitish was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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