Harish Rawat

Harish Rawat was born in a Kumaoni Rajput family^[4][5] in Mohnari village (Adbora Mohnari Graam Sabha), near Chaunalia (263680), Ranikhet in Almora district of the United Provinces (now Uttarakhand) on 27 April 1948 to Rajendra Singh Rawat and Devki Devi. He studied from GIC Chaunalia in his early days. He received a Bachelor of Arts and LL.B. from Lucknow University.^[6] He is married to his fellow Congress member and politician Renuka Rawat who also obtained Bachelor of Law from Lucknow University.^[7]

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. He has been head of Congress Volunteer Wing, Congress Seva Dal, since 1980. In 1981, he along with Subramanian Swamy and 13 others led first pilgrimage to Kailash–Manasarovar after 1962 Sino-Indian War.^[8]

In 2000, he was unanimously elected as President of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee,^[9] and remained so until he was replaced by Yashpal Arya. In 2002, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.

In the 2009 general election, he left his traditional stronghold of Almora after it became a reserved seat post delimitation to contest from Haridwar, and won the election by a margin of over 1,27,000 votes.^[10] However, his wife Renuka Rawat lost in 2014 Indian general election from Haridwar by a margin of over 1.7 lakh votes.

In February 2014, Rawat took the oath of office as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand when Vijay Bahuguna resigned due to criticism of his handling of rehabilitation after June 2013 floods.^[11] In July 2014, he won a by-election from Dharchula assembly seat by over 20,000 votes after Harish Singh Dhami vacated his seat.^[12]

On 18 March 2016, nine Congress MLAs rebelled against Rawat, reducing the Congress-led Government to a minority. The Union Government decided to impose President's Rule in the state, and the order was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee on 27 March 2016.^[13][14] He was later reinstated as Chief Minister on 11 May 2016 after winning the trust vote. On 11 March, Congress under the leadership of Harish Rawat lost the 2017 Assembly Elections to BJP. He was also defeated from the two seats (Haridwar Rural and Kichha) from which he contested.

In 2019, he lost the Indian general election from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar Lok Sabha constituency by a huge margin of 3,39,096 vote. In 2022 under his leadership the Congress lost the 2022 Assembly Elections to BJP for a second consecutive time. He was also defeated from Lalkuan where he contested.^[15]

Harish Rawat is married to Renuka Rawat. They have three children together. Harish Rawat is also a member of the Congress Working Committee. One of his son, Virendra Rawat contested from Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 Indian general election but lost to Trivendra Singh Rawat of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of over 1.66 lakh votes.