Harish Rawat

Education

University of Lucknow.

Career

He also worked as Minister of State for Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (2011-2012) and Ministry of Labour and Employment (2009-2011). Harish Rawat was born in village Mohanari, near Chaunalia in Almora district of then United Provinces (now Uttarakhand), on 27 April 1948 in a Rajput family to Rajendra Singh Rawat and Devki Devi. He received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Lucknow University.

He has been head of Congress Volunteer Wing, Congress Seva Dal since 1980.

In 2000, he was unanimously elected the President of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (Utttar Pradesh Congress Committee), and remained so until he was replaced by Yashpal Arya. In February 2014, Rawat took the oath of office as 7th chief minister of Uttarakhand when Vijay Bahuguna resigned due to criticism of his handling of rehabilitation after June floods, 2013.

Achievements

• In Indian general election, 2009, he left his traditional stronghold of Almora after it became a reserved seat post delimitation to contest from Haridwar, and won the election with over 3.3 Lakh of votes. In July 2014, he won a by-election from Dharchula assembly seat by over 19,000 votes.

Membership

A five time Member of Indian Parliament, Rawat is a leader of Indian National Congress party. As a member of 15th Lok Sabha, Rawat previously served as Union Minister of Water Resources in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Starting at village level politics, and after staying as a Trade Unionist and an Indian Youth Congress member for many years, he joined the Indian Parliament in 1980 as a member of the 7th Lok Sabha by defeating the BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi from Almora parliamentary constituency, followed by the 8th Lok Sabha and the 9th Lok Sabha.

In 2002, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.