Just as the head of the central government is the prime minister, similarly the head of the government of any state is the chief minister. 

Although the normal tenure of CM is 5 years, there have been many Chief Ministers in India who remained in power of a state for more than a decade. Here we are telling you about 10 such Chief Ministers who held power for the longest time in the history of the country.

Pawan Chamling
Pawan Kumar Chamling is the former Chief Minister of the state of Sikkim, India. Pawan Chamling served as the Chief Minister of Sikkim for 24-25 years. He was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state on 12 December 1994.

Jyoti Basu
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu held power in the state for 23 years from 1977 to 2000. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of the West Bengal in 1977.

Gegong Apang
Gegang Apang has served as the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh from 1980 to 1999. He has held power here for 19 years.

Virbhadra Singh
Virbhadra Singh (born 23 June 1934) is the fourth Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. He served as Chief Minister from 1983 to 1990, 1993 to 1998, 2003 to 2007 and 2012 to 2017 before being replaced by Jai Ram Thakur of BJP in December 2017.

Manik Sarkar
Manik Sarkar served as the Chief Minister of Tripura from 1998 to 2018, i.e., for 19 years.

Naveen Patnaik
Naveen Patnaik served as the Chief Minister of Odisha for the past 19 years.

M. Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician. He served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 18 years. He died on 7 August 2018.

Yashwant Singh Parmar
Yashwant Singh Parmar was an Indian politician. He was the leader of the Indian National Congress and the first Chief Minister of the state of Himachal Pradesh. He remained in the post of CM for 18 years. He died on 2 May 1981.

Prakash Singh Badal
Prakash Singh Badal (born 8 December 1927) hold the CM chair in Punjab for 17 years.

Apart from these, there are some other names, who worked for more than 10 years as Chief Ministers of the state-

Mohan Lal Sukhadia - Rajasthan
Pratapsingh Rane - Goa
SC Jamir - Nagaland
Sheila Dikshit - Delhi
Okram Ibobi Singh - Manipur
Tarun Gogoi - Assam
Raman Singh - Chhattisgarh
Shri Krishna Sinha - Bihar
Bidhan Chandra Roy - West Bengal
J. Jayalalithaa - Tamil Nadu
N. Chandrababu Naidu - Andhra Pradesh
Shivraj Singh Chauhan - Madhya Pradesh
Bimala Prasad Chaliha - Assam
Narendra Modi - Gujarat
Nitish Kumar - Bihar