Dehradun: The new chief minister of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat, was born in Seeron village in the state’s Pauri Garhwal district in 1964, and has worked his way up after spending a lifetime in public life, starting when he was still a teenager.
Rawat’s first foray into public life was with the RSS as its pracharak from 1983 to 1988.
Rawat, a postgraduate in sociology from Birla Campus Srinagar and a diploma-holder in journalism, entered student politics and became the organisational secretary of ABVP Uttarakhand unit, and the national secretary of ABVP in early 1990s. He was also the president of the student union at Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in 1992. He became the state vice president of Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1996.
Rawat, an MP from Garhwal and former state BJP president and state education minister, was named CM in the legislature party meeting held here on Wednesday morning and took oath at 4.05 in the afternoon.
Rawat participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation for the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya -- the foundation ceremony was held last year, after a favourable court ruling in 2019 -- and spent two months in jail.
By 1997, he was an up-and-coming politician and was elected a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, but he was keen on statehood for Uttarakhand, then part of UP and actively participated in the campaign for this, BJP leaders who have known him for years said.
{{/usCountry}}By 1997, he was an up-and-coming politician and was elected a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, but he was keen on statehood for Uttarakhand, then part of UP and actively participated in the campaign for this, BJP leaders who have known him for years said.
{{/usCountry}}When Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, he became the state’s first education minister and remained so till 2002. In 2007, he was elected as the state general secretary of Uttarakhand BJP.
In 2012, Rawat was elected as MLA from Chaubattakhal assembly seat from his native Pauri Garhwal district, and the following year (February 2013) he was appointed as the president of Uttarakhand BJP . He remained state president of the party till December 2015.
In 2017, he was not given the ticket from Chaubattakhal seat, which was was given to Satpal Maharaj, who left the Congress and joined the BJP, but he was named a national secretary of the party.
In May 2019, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Pauri Lok Sabha Seat, after defeating his rival Manish Khanduri, his political guru BC Khanduri’s son, by over 3.5 lakh votes. In the same year, he was also made in-charge of the elections in Himachal Pradesh
Rawat expressed his gratitude to the Central leadership including PM Narendra Modi, recalled his RSS days, and spoke of how a meeting with former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee influenced his politics. “I will continue to work on the development programmes introduced by (outgoing CM) Trivendra Singh Rawat so as to ensure the victory in next assembly elections”, he said .
The state goes to polls in a year.
Rashami Rawat, wife of Tirath Singh Rawat, said that on Tuesday night, when several other names were doing the rounds as possible contenders for the top spot, she received calls asking why Rawat was not among them. “ I told them to wait. Because I knew that party would give him the responsibility. He has struggled a lot and never cared about money. Because of his work in RSS, he was sent to ABVP and later to BJP”.
Rawat ‘s local roots and long years in public life should help him, analysts said. Raj Kumar, a resident of Pauri Garhwal said he has known and admired Rawat for his simplicity and maturity. “We are very happy that a leader from our district and that too such a humble one, has been given the reins of the state.”
Dinesh Arya, BJP leader and Rawat’s friend in Kumaon said that between 2007 to 2010, the new CM was district in-charge of Nainital “Then I was the district president of Nainital. I saw up close how good he was at managing the cadre and organisational issues very efficiently and democratically. He is down-to-earth and listens to the party cadre. When he became the state BJP president, he used to listen to every worker .”
(with inputs from Vipin Negi and Ankur Sharma)