Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat
Credit: PTI Photo
Political Party: BJP
Parliamentary Constituency: Haridwar, Uttarakhand
After his unceremonious removal from power in 2021, former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had compared himself to the Mahabharata character of Abhimanyu who was killed by treachery. This year's electoral battle from Haridwar is a chance for the 64-year-old politician to prove that he is not done yet.
The saffron party has given him a ticket replacing former CM and former Union minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank.
Rawat will be taking on another Rawat — Virendra Rawat, son of former CM and Congress veteran Harish Rawat — in the April 19 election.
In 2004 and 2009, Harish Rawat had won from Haridwar, which has a substantial Muslim and Dalit population. Having worked with the RSS in the 1980s, he joined the BJP subsequently. Rawat has a postgraduate degree in History and a diploma in Journalism. He was the chief minister of Uttarakhand between 2017 and 2021.
He was at the helm of rescue efforts when the state faced a deadly flood after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Chamoli district, triggering an avalanche and a deluge that killed scores of people in February 2021.
Rawat had to face the wrath of temple priests after his government formed the Chardham Devasthanam Board to control several temples in the state.
Rawat had also faced corruption allegations. In 2020 the Supreme Court gave him relief and stayed an Uttarakhand High Court order for a CBI probe into the allegations by two scribes that money was transferred into the accounts of relatives of Rawat in 2016 to support appointment of a person as head of 'Gau Seva Ayog' of Jharkhand.