The city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India is administered by the Corporation of Chennai headed by a Mayor. The Mayor is the first citizen of the city. The person is the chief of the Chennai Municipal Corporation. The Chennai Municipal Corporation has a history of 323 years and the Office of Mayor was formed in 1933. The corporation has been served by 49 different mayors as of 2025. Priya Rajan is the current mayor of Chennai.

The city is divided into 200 wards, each of them headed by a councillors who work under the Mayor. In addition to the 200 councilors, there are Deputy Commissioners and Heads of various departments and 15 Zonal officers.

First mayoralty The Corporation of Madras, the second oldest in the British Empire and the first outside the United Kingdom, was inaugurated on 29 September 1688 based on a Charter issued by James II, King of England. As per the provisions of the charter, Nathaniel Higginson, a member of the Fort St George Council, was appointed first mayor of the city. Higginson resigned after six months and was succeeded by John Littleton. Interrupted between 1746 and 1753 by the brief French occupation of Madras, the post of mayor survived with minor amendments till 1798.

The mayoralty of Madras was amended by the Charter of George I of 1727, Charter II of 1753 and the Company's Charter of 1787. Elections to the office were held annually - from 1688 to 1726, the appointment was made on 29 September, from 1727 to 1753, on 20 December and from 1753 to 1798, on the first Tuesday of every December. From 1798 the Mayor and Aldermen sat in the Recorder's Court until 1801, when that Court was merged in the Supreme Court of Judicature. The post of mayor was revived only in 1933.

List of mayors

Source:

# Name Took office Left office TermThe ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period1 Nathaniel Higginson 29 September 1688 March 1689 12 John Littleton March–April 1689 169013 Thomas Wavell 1690 July 16911 4 William Fraser July 1691 September 1691 1 5 William Fraser September 1691 September 16922 6 John Styleman September 1692 September 16931 7 John Styleman September 1693 September 1694 28 John Styleman September 1694 September 1695 3 9 Thomas Wright September 1695 September 1696 1 10 Thomas Wright September 1696 September 1697 2 11 Nathaniel Stone September 1697 September 1698 1 12 Daniel Chardin September 1698 September 1707 13 Jeremiah Harrison September 1707 September 1709 14 Robert Raworth September 1709 September 1711 15 William Jennings September 1711 September 1713 16 Bernard Benyon 1713 1715 17 Thomas Cooke 1715 1717 18 John Legg1717 1718 19 Richard Horden 1718 1720 20 Richard Benyon 1720 1721 21 Joshua Draper 1721 1722 22Catesby Oadham 1721 1723 23 George Sitwell1722 1724 24 James Hubard 1724 1725 25 Francis Rous 1725 1727 26 Captain John Powney 17 August 1727 20 December 1727 27 Francis Rous 20 December 1727 20 December 1730 28 Thomas Weston 20 December 1730 20 December 1731 29 William Monson 20 December 1731 20 December 1732 30 John Bulkley 1732 1732 31 Paul Foxley 1732 1733 32 Samuel Parkes 1733 1734 33 Hugh Naish 1734 1735 34 John Saunders 1735 1736 35Holland Goddard 1736 1737 36 Captain Rawson Hart 1737 1738 37 Edward Fouke 1738 1739 38 Samuel Harrison 1739 1740 39 Captain Timothy Tullie 1740 1741 40 Sidney Foxall 1741 1742 41 Cornelius Goodwin 1742 1743 42 Henry Powney 1743 1744 43 Samuel Greenhaugh 1744 1745 44 Sidney Foxall 1745 1746 45 Joseph Fouke 1746 September 1746Mayoralty suspended due to French occupation of Madras (1746-1753) 46 Cornelius Goodwin 1753 1754 47 William Percival 1753 1754 48 Andrew Munro December 1753 1755 49 John Walsh 1755 1756 50 George Mackay 1756 1757 51 Andrew Ross 1757 1758 52 Samuel Ardley 1758 1759 53 Claud Russell 1759 1760 54 Francis Taylor 1760 1761 55 Peter Mariette 1761 1762 56 John Lewin Smith July 1762 December 1762 57 Peter Mariette December 1762 1763 2 58 John Debonnaire 1763 1764 59 Thomas Powney 1764 1765 60 Captain George Baker 1765 1765 61 Claud Russell 1765 1766 62 Edward Raddon 1766 1767 63 Anthony Sadleir 1767 1768 64 Charles Smith 1768 1769 65 Edward Stracey 1769 1770 66 Francis Jourdan 1770 1771 67 John Hollond 1771 1772 68 George Smith 1772 1773 69 John Macpherson (resigned July 1773 and replaced by George Baker) 1773 1774 70 George Savage 1774 1775 71 James Hodges (resigned March 1775 and replaced by George Moubray) 1775 1776 72 John Turing 1776 1777 73 Andrew Majendie 1777 1778 74 James Call 1778 1779 75 George Proctor 1779 1780 76 Edward John Hollond 1780 1781 1 77 Benjamin Roebuck 1781 1782 1 78 Edward Garrow 1782 1783 79 William Webb 1783 1784 1 80 Sir John Menzies and James Call 1784 1785 81 Philip Stowey 1785 1786 82 Robert Ewing 1786 1787 83 James Call 1787 1788 84 John and Edward Hollond and Edward Garrow 1788 17892 85 William Webb 1789 1790 2 86 Vincentio Corbett and James Call 1790 1791 87 Josias Porcher 1791 1792 88 Andrew Ross 1792 1793 89 John Mitford 1793 1794 90 Henry Chichley Michell 1794 1795 91 Benjamin Roebuck 1795 1796 2 92 James Daly 1796 1797 93 William Dring 1797 1798 94 William Abbot (in Recorder's Court) 1798 1799 95 Alexander Cockburn (in Recorder's Court) 1799 1800 96 Richard Chase (replaced March 1800 by Henry Sewell, who died July 1800 and was in turn replaced by Benjamin Roebuck) (in Recorder's Court) 1800 1801 97 Richard Yeldham (in Recorder's Court) 1801 1802

Presidents

Between 1793 and 1856, municipal administration was in the control of Justices of Peace who also had judicial powers in the city. In 1856, the positions were abolished as per the Madras City Municipal Act XIV of 1856. The judges were replaced with three Municipal Commissioners from the civil service. The commissioners collected municipal taxes and enacted laws for the conservancy and improvement of the city. However, the system failed due to lack of financial accountability and the Municipal Corporation was revived in 1860 by the efforts of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras.

From 1886 onwards, a president was appointed to head the corporation and perform the duties of a mayor. The first president of the corporation was Lieutenant-Colonel G. M. J. Moore, who was then serving as military secretary to the governor of Madras. Presidents were generally appointed for a four-year term but this was reduced to one in 1910. Civil servant T. Raghavaiah was the first Indian to act as President of the Madras Corporation. The first to be appointed as full-time president was T. Vijayaraghavacharya in 1916. P. Theagaraya Chetty of the Justice Party, appointed in 1919, was the first to represent a political party.

#Portrait Name Took office Left office Term1 G. M. J. Moore 1886 1902 12 S. D. Pears 1902 1906 1 3 E. S. Lloyd 1906 1910 1 4 N. MacMichael (acting) 1910 1910 1 5 P. L. Moore 1910 1911 1 6 T. Raghavaiah (acting) 1911 1911 1 7 P. L. Moore 1911 1913 28 A. Y. G. Campbell (acting) 1913 1913 1 9 P. L. Moore 1913 1914 3 10 E. S. Lloyd 1914 1914 2 11 J. C. Molony 1914 1916 1 12 T. Vijayaraghavacharya 1916 1916 1 13 J. C. Molony 1916 19172 14 H. H. Burkitt 1917 19181 15 J. C. Molony 1918 1919 3 16 Muhammad Bazullah 1919 19191 17 P. Theagaraya Chetty 1919 1923 1 18 V. Thirumalai Pillai1923 1924 1 19 Mohammad Usman 1924 1925 1 20 O. Thanikachalam Chetti 1925 1925 1 21 Sami Venkatachalam Chetty 1925 1926 1 22 G. N. Chetty 1926 1928 1 23 Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar 1928 19301 24 P. T. Kumarasamy Chetty 1930 19311 25 T. S. Ramaswamy Iyer 1931 19321 26 M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 1932 1933 1

Mayors

Madras #Portrait Name Took Office Left Office Term 1 M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 8 March 1933 7 November 1933 1 2 W. W. Ladden 1933 1934 1 3 (1) M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 1934 1935 2 4 Abdul Hameed Khan 1935 1936 15 K. Sriramulu Naidu 1936 19371 6 J. Shivashanmugam Pillai 1937 1938 1 7 K. Venkataswamy Naidu 1938 1939 1 8 S. Satyamurti 1939 1940 1 9 C. Basudev May 1940 May 19411 10 G. Janakiram Chetty May 1941 November 1941 1 11 V. Chakkarai Chettiar 1941 1942 1 12 C. Tadulinga Mudaliar 1942 1943 1 13 Syed Niamatullah 1943 19441 14 M. Radhakrishna Pillai 1944 1945 1 15 N. Sivaraj 1945 1946 1 16 T. Sundara Rao Naidu 1946 19471 17 U. Krishna Rao 1947 1948 1 18 S. Ramaswamy Naidu 19481949 1 19 P. V. Cherian 1949 1950 1 20 R. Ramanathan Chettiar 1950 1951 1 21 C. H. Sibghatullah 1951 1952 1 22 T. Chengalvorayan 1952 1953 123B. Parameswaran19531954124R. Munusamy19541954 25 M. A. Chidambaram 1954 (?) 1955 126 V. R. Ramanatha Iyer 1955 1956127 K. N. Srinivasan 1956 1957128 Tara Cherian December 1957 November 1958 1 29 K. Kamalakannan November 1958 April 1959 1 30 A. P. Arasu April 1959 December 1959 1 31 M. S. Abdul Khader 1959 1960 1 32 V. Munusamy 1960 1961 133G. Kuchelar19611963 34 R. Sivasankar Mehta November 1963 March 1964 1 35 S. Krishnamurthy 1964 1965 1 36 C. Chitti Babu 1965 1966 137M. Minor Moses19651966 38 Era Sambandham 1966 1967 1 39 Habibullah Baig 1967 19681 40 Velur D. Narayanan 1968 1969 1 41 V. Balasundaram 1969 1970 1 42 S. A. Ganesan 1970 1971 1 43 Kamakshi Jayaraman 1971 1972 1 44 R. Arumugam 1972 30 November 1973 1

From 1 December 1973 to 25 October 1996, the Corporation and Mayoralty were suspended. Before their re-establishment, on 17 July 1996, the city's name in English and other non-Tamil languages was changed from Madras to Chennai.

Chennai #Portrait Name Took Office Left Office Term45 M. K. Stalin 25 October 1996 6 September 2002 1(45)September 2001June 20022 46 Karate R. Thiagarajan October 2002 October 2006 1 47 M. Subramaniam October 2006 September 2011 1 48 Saidai Sa. Duraisamy 25 October 2011 24 October 2016 1 Corporation / Mayoralty suspended (25 October 2016 - 3 March 2022)49Priya Rajan4 March 2022Incumbent1

Footnotes

Notes

References

External links Official website