The curtains on polling were drawn after the voting for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 concluded on June 1, after the country cast ballots in the last and seventh phase. With this, India now eagerly awaits for June 4, the day when the results of this intense political race will finally be announced, deciding on the electoral fate of many.
As the nation gears up to know who the next Prime Minister of India will be, let’s take a look at the former chief ministers, who threw their hats into the political ring to try their luck at securing parliamentary seats across India. It would be interesting to watch if these former CMs would be able to stake claim from their respective seats in this intense high-stakes political battle.
Former chief ministers who contested the Lok Sabha Elections 2024
| Name | Party | Former CM (State) | Contested LS Polls 2024 From (Constituency) |
| Akhilesh Yadav | Samajwadi Party | Uttar Pradesh | Kannauj |
| Shivraj Singh Chouhan | Bharatiya Janata Party | Madhya Pradesh | Vidisha |
| Bhupesh Baghel | Congress | Chhattisgarh | Rajnandgaon |
| Omar Abdullah | National Conference | Jammu and Kashmir (UT) | Baramulla |
| Manohar Lal Khattar | Bharatiya Janata Party | Haryana | Karnal |
| Basvaraj Bommai | Bharatiya Janata Party | Karnataka | Haveri |
| Arjun Munda | Bharatiya Janata Party | Jharkhand | Khunti |
| Jagadish Shettar | Bharatiya Janata Party | Karnataka | Belgaum |
| Charanjit Singh Channi | Congress | Punjab | Jalandhar |
| Mehbooba Mufti | Peoples Democratic Party | Jammu and Kashmir (UT) | Anantang-Rajouri |
| Ghulam Nabi Azad | Democratic Progressive Azad Party | Jammu and Kashmir (UT) | Anantang-Rajouri |
| Nabam Tuki | Congress | Arunachal Pradesh | Arunachal West |
| V Vaithilingam | Congress | Puducherry | Puducherry |
1. Akhilesh Yadav
The chief of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, served as the 20th chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012-2017, after winning 224 seats in the March 2012 assembly elections.
Son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav was elected a member of the Lok Sabha from Kannauj in 2000, for the first time. Subsequently, he was re-elected in the 14th Lok Sabha in 2004 and in 15th Lok Sabha in 2009.
However, he resigned on May 2, 2012 to become the Member of Legislative Council in Uttar Pradesh. After the SP-Congress Alliance headed by Yadav failed to form a government in the 2017 Assembly elections, he submitted his resignation to Governor Ram Naik in March, 2017.
In 2019, he was elected as the Member of Parliament from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat after defeating BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav, securing 621,578 seats.
Akhilesh Yadav contested the Lok Sabha elections 2024 from the Kannauj seat.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's Subrat Pathak defeated Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav to win the Kannauj seat by a margin of 12,353 votes.
2. Shivraj Singh Chouhan
As the Madhya Pradesh BJP President at that time, Shivraj Singh Chouhan took oath as the Chief Minister of the state on 30 November 2005. Contesting a by-election from Budhni assembly constituency the following year, Chouhan won his old seat by a margin of over 36,000 votes.
In 2008, he retained his Budhni seat by over 41,000 votes, leading the saffron party to a second consecutive victory in Madhya Pradesh.
On 12 December 2008, Chouhan was sworn in for his second term as the Chief Minister.
Thereafter, he was elected as the Chief Minister of MP for a third term on 8 December 2013, wresting the Budhni seat from a Congress candidate by the margin of 84,805 votes.
However, after failing to gain a majority in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly election, Chouhan resigned as Chief Minister.
In March 2020, he was once again sworn in as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh after 22 MLAs of the Congress resigned along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, leading to the collapse of the ruling Kamal Nath government.
As of December 2023, Shivraj Singh Chouhan remains the longest-serving chief minister from the BJP.
In Lok Sabha elections 2024, Chouhan contested from the Vidisha seat.
BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur defeated Congress's Digvijay Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning from the Vidisha seat with a margin of 3,64,822 votes.
3. Bhupesh Baghel
Bhupesh Baghel, popularly called Kaka, is a Congress leader who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh from 2018 to 2023.
Baghel also served as the president of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress from 2014 to 2019.
He represented the Patan constituency in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly from 2003 to 2008 and thereafter since 2013.
Bhupesh Baghel contested the Lok Sabha elections 2024 from the Rajnandgaon seat.
In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's Santosh Pandey staked claim to the Rajnandgaon seat with a margin of 1,11,966 votes, defeating Congress's Bholaram Sahu.
4. Omar Abdullah
Omar Abdullah, once a part of the NDA coalition under the rule of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is the chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.
Abdullah served as 8th Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2009 to 2015, after forming a coalition government with the Congress in January 2009.
He became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of the erstwhile state and also the youngest Lok Sabha member. Abdullah represented the Srinagar constituency in the 14th Lok Sabha elections.
In Lok Sabha elections 2024, Omar Abdullah contested the polls from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla seat.
JKNC's Mohammad Akbar Lone defeated JKPC's Raja Aijaz Ali by 30,233 votes in Baramulla, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
5. Manohar Lal Khattar
Manohar Lal Khattar, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a former RSS pracharak, served as the 10th Chief Minister of Haryana from 26 October 2014 till his resignation on 12 March 2024.
Since 2014, Khattar represented the Karnal constituency in the Haryana Legislative Assembly till 2024.
Khattar became BJP's first Chief Minister of Haryana after winning his maiden election by a margin of 63,736 votes.
Thereafter, on 27 October 2019, he was sworn in as the chief minister for the second time, after forming an alliance with Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party after the 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election.
In March 2024, Khattar was announced as the BJP candidate for the Karnal constituency in the Lok Sabha Polls 2024.
BJP's Sanjay Bhatia contested from Karnal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by a margin of 6,56,142 votes.
6. Basvaraj Bommai
Basavaraj Somappa Bommai served as the 23rd Chief Minister of Karnataka from 18 July 2021 to 19 May 2023.
A former member of the Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United), he later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2008, after which he was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Shiggaon constituency.
Bommai was announced as the BJP candidate for the Haveri constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's Shivakumar Udasi won from the Haveri seat.
7. Arjun Munda
Arjun Munda, the current Minister of Tribal Affairs and Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Munda was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Jamshedpur constituency.
Arjun Munda also served as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand from September 2010 to January 2013. However, in the 2014 Assembly elections, he lost his seat to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Dashrath Gagrai by 11,966 votes.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Munda contested from Jharkhand’s Khunti seat on a BJP ticket.
Munda, in the previous parliamentary elections, defeated INC's Kalicharan Munda in Khunti by securing just 1445 votes more than him.
8. Jagadish Shettar
Jagadish Shivappa Shettar served as the 15th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 2012 to 2013. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shettar joined the Congress after he was denied the MLA ticket in 2023.
However, after spending nine months in the Congress, he re-joined the saffron party.
Shettar, in March this year, was announced as the BJP candidate from the Belgaum Constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's Suresh Angadi won from the Belgaum seat with a margin of 3,91,304 votes.
9. Mehbooba Mufti
Mehbooba Mufti, the first female chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and the president of the People’s Democratic Party, served as the CM from April 2016 to June 2018.
She resigned in 2018 after there was a rift between the PDP and BJP alliance.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she contested from Anantnag seat but lost it to Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference by a margin of 6,676 votes.
Mufti contested the Lok Sabha Polls 2024 from Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri seat.
10. Charanjit Singh Channi
Charanjit Singh Channi, took oath as the 16th Chief Minister of Punjab. A member of the Indian National Congress, he was the first Dalit to become the CM of Punjab.
Channi was the CM of Punjab from 20 September 2021 to 16 March 2022. He resigned after losing to Aam Aadmi Party’s CM candidate Bhagwant Mann in the 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Channi contested on a Congress ticket from Punjab’s Jalandhar constituency.
In the previous parliamentary elections, Congress's Santokh Singh Chaudhary won from Jalandhar seat by a margin of19,491 votes.