Trivendra Singh Rawat was on Saturday sworn in as the new Uttarakhand Chief Minister.
He was administered the oath of office by Governor Krishna Kant Paul.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and a host of senior party leaders and Union Cabinet Ministers attended the oath-taking ceremony of Rawat, a long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist.
He was elected by the BJP’s newly elected Uttarakhand MLAs as the legislative party leader on Friday evening.
Rawat, an organisational man of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttarakhand and the party in-charge for Jharkhand, won his traditional Doiwala seat by defeating Congress' Hira Singh Bisht by over 24,000 votes.
Rawat, a former swayamsewak of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), is considered close to BJP President Amit Shah. After an active association with the RSS for nearly 14 years, he was made BJP’s organisational secretary. He was also actively associated with the Uttarakhand statehood agitation, during which he was arrested several times.
Rawat, who is a post graduate in journalism from Garhwal University's Shrinagar campus, worked for many years as state BJP organisation secretary before being elected for the first time from Doiwala seat in the state's first assembly elections in 2002. Rawat won again in 2007 and was made agriculture minister.
Rawat reaped the reward for his organisational skills when he was given the responsibility of the party's national secretary in 2013.
His successful stint in that capacity earned him the post of co-incharge of the party’s affairs in Uttar Pradesh just a year later in 2014. He was later made BJP in-charge of Jharkhand ahead of the crucial assembly election, a responsibility he discharged well to further strengthen the party leadership’s trust in him.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Rawat worked closely with Amit Shah in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP swept all but seven seats. He is also credited with the BJP's win in Jharkhand.
(With ANI, IANS and PTI inputs.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)