Who is Harak Singh Rawat? All you need to know about expelled Uttarakhand BJP Minister

Ahead of the Uttarakhand assembly polls, minister Harak Singh Rawat was on Sunday dismissed from the state cabinet and expelled from the primary membership of the BJP for six years.

Rawat has been dismissed from the cabinet by Chief Minister Dhami and also expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years, state BJP spokesman Shadab Shams told PTI in Dehradun.

The decision to dismiss Rawat from the cabinet was taken during the BJP's Uttarakhand core group meeting held at the party's headquarters in Delhi on Saturday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami were present in the meeting along with the party's National President Jagat Prakash Nadda, State president Madan Kaushik, state election in-charge Pralhad Joshi, election co-in charge RP Singh and others.

Who is Harak Singh Rawat?

Harak Singh Rawat is regarded as a political stalwart and in the 1990's was a minister in Uttar Pradesh government after being elected from Pauri constituency. In 2002 and 2007, Rawat won from Lansdowne constituency and in 2012 he was elected from Rudraprayag. In 2017, he contested on BJP ticket and won from Kotdwar.

Harak Singh Rawat went to BJP five years ago after rebelling against Congress and speculations are rife about Rawat returning to Congress again.

Interestingly, Harak Singh Rawat is considered to have played a key role in the rebellion of nine Congress MLAs in 2016. He led a rebellion against the then Harish Rawat government in 2016 when nine rebel MLAs, including Harak Singh Rawat, left the Congress and joined the BJP.

Published on: Monday, January 17, 2022, 12:25 PM IST