The saffron top guns stamping their seal on the name of Trivendra Singh Rawat has not taken many in the State BJP roost by surprise, given the latter’s excellent equations with the duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national party president Amit Shah and equally importantly, with the RSS apparatchiks.
A double MA in History and holder of a diploma in Journalism from HN Bahuguna University, Garhwal, he started his career as an RSS worker in 1983 and later became the organising secretary of Uttarakhand BJP, his maiden political appointment.
Known for his organisational skill since the days he worked as a pracharak of the RSS, he as the party’s points-man in Jharkhand played an instrumental role in the formation of a BJP-helmed Government in the tribal-majority State. His stock surged further after he was made the convener of PM Modi’s flagship Namami Gange project. later, his stature ascended further as during the high-voltage electioneering for the crucial State of Uttar Pradesh, he was made in-charge of Narendra Modi’s Varanasi roadshow that is supposed to have propelled the party to its spectacular victory.
After spending years in the RSS roost, building the organization brick by brick in the mountainous region years before it became a state, Rawat cut its teeth in the electoral politics as he successfully contested from the Doiwala seat during the 2002 Assembly election, the maiden one after Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. He remained on the winning streak following his re-election from the same Doiwala seat during the 2007 Assembly election. The two-time MlA was subsequently inducted into the BJP-helmed ministry as a cabinet minister in charge of agriculture by then chief minister Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. He remained as the cabinet minister even after the change of guard with the CM mantle being passed on to Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. As the agriculture minister, he had started a project of purchasing cow urine, thus ensuring some extra income to the farmers. However, the project courted controversy as an Ayurvedic company was supposed to have reaped a huge benefit. Though his name figured in the multi-crore seeds scam, he was given a clean chit following a probe initiated by the Congress government later.
Rawat tasted defeat during the 2012 Assembly election as he shifted to Raipur from Doiwala. He lost to the Congress candidate Umesh Sharma Kau. He tried his electoral luck from Doiwala seat during a by-election held in July 2014. He lost again, this time to the Congress candidate Heera Singh Bisht. luck smiled on him this time as he trounced the same Bisht by a thumping margin of over 25,000 votes.
Importantly, he has no criminal case registered against him as per the affidavit filed by him before the Election Commission of India. Besides, he is known as soft-spoken leader with a deep geographical, political and cultural understanding of the state that enjoys a unique stature being a custodian of a hoary heritage.