Number Theory: The state-wise trends in appointment of deputy CMs

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The first part of this series looked at the overall trend and overlap of deputy chief ministers in the country. This part will look at state-wise trends in the appointment and longevity of deputy chief ministers in the country. The third part of the series will look at party-wise and caste-wise trends in deputy chief ministers.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu (right) with deputy CM Pawan Kalyan. (PTI photo)

The state-wise trends in appointment of deputy CMs

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  Andhra Pradesh has had the maximum number of the deputy chief ministers so far

  A state-wise analysis shows that out of 190 deputy chief ministers in the database, 21 come from Andhra Pradesh, 17 from Maharashtra, 16 from Goa, and 13 each from Bihar and Karnataka. In Andhra Pradesh, during the 2019-24 rule of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Jaganmohan Reddy appointed nine deputy chief ministers. The first five were appointed in June 2019, one more in July 2020 and the other three in April 2022. To be sure, there were only five of them in this office at the same time. This is also the record number of deputy chief ministers during the reign of any state government that completed its full five-year term.
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  However, it is Telangana which has had the maximum deputy chief ministers per chief minister

  Telangana is India’s newest state and it had its first state government in 2014. The state has had three chief ministers (K Chandrasekhar Rao twice and Reventh Reddy since 2023) but four deputy chief ministers (one, two and one each in Rao’s first and second term and Reddy’s ongoing term). This gives 1.33 deputy chief ministers per chief minister. The state which comes second in this ranking is Andhra Pradesh where this number is 0.72. The state where this number is the lowest is Himachal Pradesh which got its first ever deputy chief minister only after the 2022 election.
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  Sushil Kumar Modi was India’s longest-serving deputy chief minister

  Among the 190 individuals who have ever been a deputy chief minister in India, the late Sushil Modi from the BJP was the longest serving chief minister if the entire term irrespective of breaks in between were to be added. Only 9.5% of the individuals who have been deputy chief minister have had a cumulative term of more than 1810 days (five years) in a single term and 30.5% of them have had a term of less than 365 days (a year). The average term of a deputy chief minister in the data set is 729 days.
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  Which states have had deputy chief ministers for the longest time?

  If one were to count the number of days when a particular state had at least one deputy chief minister in office, Maharashtra is ranked at the top with 10408 days when a deputy chief minister has been office. Chhattisgarh is ranked the lowest on this count. If one were to look at the number of days a state has had a deputy chief minister as a ratio of the number of days of a chief minister being in office – this is necessary to make old and new states comparable – Telangana becomes the top state by the length of period when a deputy chief minister held office.