Harish Singh Rawat is an Indian politician who served as Uttarakhand's Chief Minister from 2014 to 2017.
He was born on April 27, 1948. Rawat, a five-term member of Congress, is a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. In Manmohan Singh's cabinet from 2012 to 2014, Rawat, a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, served as the Union Minister of Water Resources.
Moreover, he also served as Minister of State for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (2011–2012), and Ministry of Labour and Employment (2009–2010), respectively.
Rawat's political career
In a political career spanning over four decades, he has contested nine Lok Sabha elections and won four of them.
Despite his relatively poor electoral performance, Harish Rawat remains a towering politician in Uttarakhand. He is one who is not only popular in Uttarakhand, but also at the national level.
He started his political career in 1980, contesting from Almora in undivided Uttar Pradesh. He was elected to the seventh Lok Sabha. He retained this seat in 1984, and again in 1989.
In 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 Harish Rawat contested from the same seat on his home-turf but was defeated by BJP’s Jeewan Sharma in 1991 and Bachi Singh Rawat in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
Subsequently, Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000.
Congress gave him a Rajya Sabha seat in 2002 despite consequent defeats
Despite consequent defeats, the Congress gave him a Rajya Sabha seat in 2002. He remained a Rajya Sabha MP till 2008.
On 18 March 2016, nine Congress MLAs rebelled against Rawat, reducing the Congress-led Government to a minority. The Union Government then decided to impose President's Rule in the state.
He was later reinstated as Chief Minister on 11 May 2016 after winning the trust vote.
On 11 March, Congress under the leadership of Rawat lost the 2017 Assembly Elections to BJP. He also lost from the two seats (Haridwar Rural and Kichha) from which he contested.
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