The chief minister of Kerala is the chief executive of the Indian state of Kerala. De facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly, the state's governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form 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.^[2]

Following India's independence from the British Raj in 1947, the states' monarchs of Travancore and Cochin instituted a measure of representative government, headed by a prime minister and his council of ministers. On 1 July 1949 Travancore and Cochin were merged to form Travancore-Cochin state. The Malabar District and Kasaragod region of South Canara, which together constitute more than half of present state of Kerala, had their representatives in the Madras Legislative Assembly.

On 1 November 1956, the States Reorganisation Act redrew India's map along linguistic lines, and the present-day state of Kerala was born, consisting solely of Malayalam-speaking regions, by merging Cochin, Malabar, and Travancore regions, and the Kasaragod region of South Canara.^[3] The first assembly election in Kerala state was held in February–March 1957.^[3] The first Kerala Legislative Assembly was formed on 5 April 1957. The Assembly had 127 members including a nominated member.^[3] Since then, 12 people have served as the chief minister of Kerala. The first was E. M. S. Namboodiripad of the Communist Party of India, whose tenure was cut short by the imposition of President's rule. Kerala has come under President's rule for four years over seven terms, the last of them in 1982. Since then the office has alternated between leaders of the Indian National Congress and of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). E. K. Nayanar is the longest serving holder of the office for a total of 10 years, 353 days. Pinarayi Vijayan is the incumbent chief minister; his Left Democratic Front government has been in office since 25 May 2016.

• ^† Assassinated or died in office
• ^§ Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term
• ^RES Resigned
• ^NC Resigned following a no-confidence motion

On 1 November 1956, Government of India enacted the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 by which a new Kerala state was formed by the merger of Travancore-Cochin state with the Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk of South Canara district of the Madras State. The southern part of Travancore-Cochin, Kanyakumari district, along with Sengottai Taluk was transferred to Madras state and the Laccadive and Minicoy Islands were separated from Malabar district to form a new Union Territory.^[5][6] A new Legislative Assembly was also created, for which elections were held in 1957.

List of chief ministers by length of term

List by party

• List of current Indian chief ministers
• Kerala Council of Ministers
• Deputy Chief Ministers of Kerala