Harish Rawat

Harish Rawat हरीश रावत
7th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
In office 11 May 2016 – 18 March 2017
Governor	Aziz Qureshi Krishan Kant Paul
Preceded by	President's Rule
Succeeded by	Trivendra Singh Rawat
In office 1 February 2014 – 27 March 2016
Preceded by	Vijay Bahuguna
Succeeded by	President's Rule
Union Minister of Water Resources
In office 30 October 2012 – 31 January 2014
Preceded by	Pawan Kumar Bansal
Succeeded by	Uma Bharti
Member of Parliament for Haridwar
In office May 2009 – May 2014
Preceded by	Rajendra Kumar Badi
Succeeded by	Ramesh Pokhriyal
Member of Rajya Sabha
In office 2002–2008
Constituency	Uttarakhand
Member of Parliament for Almora
In office 1980-91
Preceded by	Murli Manohar Joshi
Succeeded by	Jeewan Sharma
Personal details
Born	(1948-04-27) 27 April 1948 Almora, United Provinces, India (now in Uttarakhand, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Alma mater	University of Lucknow

Harish Chandra Singh Rawat (born 27 April 1948) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2014-2017. A five-time Member of Parliament, Rawat is a leader of the Indian National Congress party. As a member of 15th Lok Sabha, Rawat served as Union Minister of Water Resources in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2012 to 2014.^[1] He also worked as Minister of State at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Food Processing Industries^[2] (2011-2012) and Ministry of Labour and Employment^[3] (2009-2011).

Early life and education

Harish Rawat was born in Mohanari village, near Chaunalia in Almora district of the United Provinces (now Uttarakhand) on 27 April 1948 in a Rajput family^[4] to Rajendra Singh Rawat and Devki Devi. He received a Bachelor of Arts and LL.B. from Lucknow University.^[5]

Early political career

Starting at village level politics, and after staying as a trade unionist and an Indian Youth Congress member for many years, he joined the Indian Parliament in 1980 as a member of the 7th Lok Sabha by defeating the BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi from Almora parliamentary constituency, followed by the 8th Lok Sabha and the 9th Lok Sabha. He has been head of Congress Volunteer Wing, Congress Seva Dal, since 1980.

Later years

In 2000, he was unanimously elected as President of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (UKPCC),^[6] and remained so until he was replaced by Yashpal Arya. In 2002, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.

In the 2009 general election, he left his traditional stronghold of Almora after it became a reserved seat post delimitation to contest from Haridwar, and won the election with over 3.3 Lakh of votes.^[7]

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand

In February 2014, Rawat took the oath of office as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand when Vijay Bahuguna resigned due to criticism of his handling of rehabilitation after June 2013 floods.^[8] In July 2014, he won a by-election from Dharchula assembly seat by over 19,000 votes.^[9]

On 18 March 2016, nine Congress MLAs rebelled against Rawat, reducing the Congress-led Government to a minority. The Union Government decided to impose President's Rule in the state, and the order was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee on 27 March 2016.^[10] On March 11, Congress under the leadership of Harish Rawat lost 2017 Assembly Elections to BJP. He was also defeated from the two seats (Haridwar Rural and Kichcha) from which he contested.

Elections contested

References

12. उत्तराखंड के मुख्यमंत्री ने प्रवासियों से कहा - घर लौट आओ प्लीज http://www.uttarakhandnews.org/2015/02/uttarakhandchiefministerharishrawat_4.html

External links

• Official website of CM of Uttarakhand

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