Who is Tirath Singh Rawat - The new CM of Uttarakhand

Dehradun, Mar 11: After the political chaos that led to Trivendra Singh Rawat resigning from the CM’s post, Garhwal MP Tirath Singh Rawat took over as the 10th CM of Uttarakhand. He was administered the oath of office by Governor Baby Rani Maurya on Wednesday evening.

  

 

Earlier in the day, Tirath Singh had met Governor Baby Rani Maurya to stake a claim to form the government in the state. The 56-year-old was elected as leader of the BJP legislature, party paving way for him to take over as the state chief minister. Tirath Rawat, whose name was proposed by Trivendra Rawat at the legislative party meeting held at the BJP office in Balbir Road, is a close aide of former CM BC Khanduri and a former member of RSS and ABVP.

 

In the early days of his political career, he was part of the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP's youth wing, where he served as the state vice-president for some time before being elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in 1997.

 

He was the first education minister of Uttarakhand in 2000. He was elected first as BJP's Uttarakhand general secretary in 2007 and later as the party's state unit chief in 2013.

 

Rawat has served as the first education minister of Uttarakhand, BJP state president, the party’s state general secretary as well as BJP’s national secretary. He was MLA from Chaubattakhal in Pauri from 2012 to 2017, and opted out of the race in favour of Satpal Maharaj in the 2017 assembly polls.

 

In 2019, he was fielded as BJP candidate from Garhwal Lok Sabha seat against his mentor BC Khanduri’s son Manish Khanduri who was fighting on a Congress ticket. He won the seat with over 3 lakh votes, one of the biggest victory margins during the polls.

 

Soon after being named CM, Tirath Rawat said, “I am grateful to the Prime Minister and my party for giving me this opportunity. I will make my best efforts to live up to their expectations and continue the positive works done by Trivendra Singh Rawat in the last four years.”

 

PM Narendra Modi, while congratulating Tirath Rawat, said in a tweet: “He brings with him vast administrative and organisational experience. I am confident under his leadership, Uttarakhand will continue to scale new heights of progress.”

 

After being administered the oath of office, Tirath Rawat chaired a meeting of officials during which he reviewed preparations for the first shahi snan at the Haridwar Maha Kumbh on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri on Thursday. In his first decision as CM, Tirath Rawat said, “Flower petals would be showered from a helicopter on devotees coming for the first shahi snan.”

.

.