The tenth chief minister of Uttarakhand Tirath Singh Rawat who is the Member of Parliament from Garhwal parliamentary constituency is from a simple family and has a very humble background. Born on April 9, 1964 to Kalam Singh Rawat and Gaura Devi in Seeronvillage of Aswalsyun Patti in Pauri district Rawat did his early schooling from his village. He did his graduation from Garhwal University in Sociology and like his predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat did a diploma in journalism. He joined Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 20 years. He was active in student politics as well and was elected as president of HNB Garhwal University students union. Rawat also functioned as general secretary (organisation) of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
In the year 1997, he was elected as a member of the UP legislative council and later after creation of Uttarakhand state in 2000, became the state’s first education minister. He represented the Chaubattakhal constituency in the Vidhan Sabha from 2012 to 2017. From 2013 to 2015 he served as president of Uttarakhand unit of BJP. During his term as the BJP state president, the party candidates of BJP won elections to four out of five mayoral positions in addition to party candidates winning from all the five parliamentary constituencies in the 2014 parliamentary polls.
However in the assembly elections of 2017 he was denied ticket from Chaubattakhal assembly constituency from where he was the sitting MLA. In his place, Satpal Maharaaz was given the party ticket. On being denied the ticket, Rawat had expressed his displeasure but remained faithful to the party. The party made him its candidate for the Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 elections. In this election he defeated his Congress rival Manish Khanduri – son of his mentor and former CM, BC Khanduri- by a record margin of over 2.85 lakh votes.
Thursday, 11 March 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
