It’s official: Rawat will be Uttarakhand chief minister
Incredible journey for Trivendra Rawat who struck it rich in politics
Trivendra Singh Rawat was on Friday unanimously elected leader of Uttarakhand BJP legislature party, paving the way for the former RSS man to take over the reins of the state from Saturday.
Announcing the decision after the legislature party meeting at a hotel in Dehradun, BJP's central observer for the election Narendra Singh Tomar said Rawat's name was proposed by Prakash Pant and Satpal Maharaj, MLAs from Pithoragarh and Chaubattakhal respectively.
Satpal Mahraj, a former Union minister and one of the proposers of Rawat’s name, was among the contenders for the top job. Soon after the legislature party meeting, the MLAs left for Raj Bhawan where they handed over the resolution on Rawat's unanimous election to Governor K. K Paul. Rawat will be sworn in as the eighth chief minister of the hill state on Saturday at the Parade Ground here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, besides a host of national and state party leaders.
The past six days after March 11, when the party swept to a landslide victory in the state winning 57 out of the 70 seats, witnessed intense speculation over who would be the new chief minister with over half-a-dozen heavyweight contenders.
From an obscure RSS pracharak for Dehradun city to the chief ministership of Uttarakhand, it has been an amazing journey for Trivendra Singh Rawat whose fierce loyalty to the BJP and RSS saw him pip rival heavyweights like Satpal Maharaj to the post.
Coupled with his administrative and organisational skills and experience, his loyalty to the party and RSS ideology seemed to have won the day for him. So impressed was Home Minister Rajnath Singh with his unflinching devotion that while asking people to vote for Rawat, he had said, "Trivendra Singh Rawat ne kabhi apni nishtha nahin badli (he never switched his loyalty)."
The ringing endorsement by the fellow Thakur leader from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh seems to have worked for Rawat, 56, who wrested the Doiwala seat from Congress with a margin of 24,869 votes to win it for the third time.
His organisational skills were put to test in Jharkhand where he came out with flying colours, guiding the BJP to a resounding electoral victory in the assembly polls in 2014 as party incharge. Rawat also has considerable administrative experience as he was a minister in the BJP governments led by B C Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
Born in December 1960 into a family where serving in the armed forces was a tradition, with his father Pratap Singh Rawat in Garhwal Rifles, he studied in a school built of mud and thatch in his native village of Khairasain in Pauri Garhwal district. Though average in studies, Rawat evinced keen interest in socio-cultural work at an early age, a fact which explains his joining the RSS aged 19 years.
Six years later he was appointed RSS pracharak for Dehradun city. After an active association with the RSS for nearly 14 years, he was made BJP’s organisational secretary. He was also actively associated with the Uttarakhand statehood agitation during which he was arrested several times.
Rawat, who is a post graduate in journalism from Garhwal University's Shrinagar campus, worked for many years as a secretary for pradesh BJP organisation before being elected for the first time from Doiwala seat in the state’s first assembly elections in 2002. Rawat won again in 2007 and was made agriculture minister. Rawat reaped the reward for his organisational skills when he was given the responsibility of the party’s national secretary in 2013. His successful stint in that capacity earned him the post of co-in-charge of the party’s affairs in Uttar Pradesh just a year later in 2014. He was later made BJP incharge of Jharkhand ahead of the crucial assembly election, a responsibility he discharged well to further strengthen the party leadership's trust in him.