Harish Rawat: Congress’ best weapon to win another term

Harish Rawat
Uttarakhand Chief Minister

At 69, Harish Rawat is one of the most experienced leaders of the Congress in the country.

It was only the inner machinations of the Congress that did not let him become Uttarakhand chief minister till as late as January 2014.

He is a five-term member of Parliament, out of which he won four Lok Sabha elections. In his first Lok Sabha polls in 1980, Mr Rawat defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi from Almora in undivided Uttar Pradesh. Mr Joshi never contested elections from Uttarakhand again.

Mr Rawat started out by joining politics at village level and held positions such as block pramukh and gram pradhan.

He played second fiddle to Congress leader N.D. Tewari after Uttarakhand was created. The former was often at the receiving end of the machinations and could never reach the top slot.

Even when Mr Tewari left, and the Congress formed the government in the state in 2002, the party chose Vijay Bahuguna over Mr Rawat, who was then minister of state for agriculture and parliamentary affairs in the Centre.

Media reports at that time said he was in touch with the then BJP president Nitin Gadkari, but he did not leave the Congress. Mr Rawat got his chance at the top job after Mr Bahuguna resigned over mismanagement of relief efforts in the June 2013 Uttarakhand floods.

Over three years down the line Mr Rawat is the tallest leader in the Uttarakhand Congress unit.

In March 2016, he survived a mutiny in his government when nine of his members of legislative Assembly (MLAs) switched to the BJP. The state was under President’s Rule for some time, which was struck down by the Uttarakhand high court on a petition filed by Mr Rawat.

He was asked to prove his majority on the floor of the House by the Supreme Court – a task that he succeeded.

Such were his political skills that he got not only two MLAs from Bahujan Samaj Party to vote for him but also a BJP MLA.

A Central Bureau of Investigation probe is also going on against Mr Rawat for allegedly trying to offer money to legislators. The matter has been challenged in the high court.

Currently, he is facing rebellion from state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay. But Mr Rawat is still the best weapon that Congress has to retain power in the hill state.