Trivendra Singh Rawat set to be CM of Uttarakhand

Bharatiya Janata Party has appointed Trivendra Singh Rawat as the chief minister of Uttarakhand, according to Indian Express. Citing party sources, the report stated that Rawat was informed last night and will be formally elected today. A Thakur from the Gharwal region, Rawat won the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly elections from the Doiwala (Dehradun) seat with 58,502 seats, defeating Indian National Congress’s Heera Singh Bisht.

Rawat was Member of Legislative Assembly from Doiwala between 2002 and 2012. He was appointed BJP in-charge of Jharkhand in 2014 by party president Amit Shah. According to myneta, Rawat has declared assets of about Rs 1.64 crore and has a clean record, with no criminal cases against him. Rawat joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the late 1970s and worked as a tehsil pracharak in Uttarakhand till about 1990.  Between 1997 and 2002, he worked as the organisational secretary of BJP in Uttarakhand. He is learnt to be close to BJP President Amit Shah and, according to a report in Hindustan Times, “Amit Shah’s support to Rawat seems to have tilted the balance in his favour.”