Trivendra Singh Rawat


Trivendra Singh Rawat is an Indian politician and is the eighth and current Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
Rawat was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from 1979 to 2002 and held the post of organising secretary of the Uttarakhand region, and later the Uttarakhand state, after the state's formation in 2000. He was elected from Doiwala in the State's first legislative assembly elections in 2002. He retained his seat in the 2007 elections and served as the State's Minister of Agriculture.
As a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he served as Jharkhand's in-charge and Uttarakhand cadre's president. Winning from Doiwala again in 2017, he was named the Chief Minister after his party won majority and formed the government.

Early life and career

Rawat was born on 20 December 1960 in the village of Khairasain in the Kotdwar tehsil, in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. He was the ninth and youngest child in the family. He obtained his master's degree in journalism from Birla Campus in Srinagar affiliated to the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
Rawat joined the right-wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1979 before becoming its pracharak for the Dehradun region in 1985. Subsequently, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political party associated with it. He was made BJP's organising secretary for the Uttarakhand region and worked with senior leader Lalji Tandon at the time. He was also actively involved in the Uttarakhand movement, during which he was arrested several times. After the region received statehood in 2000, Rawat was made the state cadre's BJP president.
Rawat lost a by-election from Doiwala in 2014, when the seat was vacated by former chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal. In 2017 he won the same Assembly constituency of Doiwala.
His 27 July 2017 tweet about linguistic preferences sparked off a controversy and he was accused of preferring Garhwali language over the Kumaoni language.
In July 2019, Rawat said that cow is the only animal that exhales oxygen and that living in close proximity to cows could cure tuberculosis. This was criticised by rivals.