On October 28th, 2012 Harish Rawat became the Minister of Water Resources after being Union Minister of State, Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs since January 19, 2011. Rawat is a member of the Indian National Congress and represents Haridwar in Uttarakhand.
Born in Mohanari, a village near Chaunalia, Almora district, Uttarakhand, on April 27, 1947 Rawat started politics at the village level, was a Trade Unionist and an Indian Youth Congress member. He joined the Indian Parliament in 1980 (7th Lok Sabha) by defeating the BJP veteran Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi and won 2 re-elections (1984 and 1989).
But in 1991 Rawat lost the Lok Sabha election to the BJP's Mr Jeevan Sharma. The following three Lok Sabha elections (1996,1998,1999) he also lost, all three to the BJP's Bachi Singh Rawat.
The following year (2000), Uttarakhand became a state and in December, Rawat was unanimously elected as President of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee. He was President for seven years.
From 2002–2008, he represented Uttarakhand in the Rajya Sabha. From 2009 – 2012, Rawat was Union Minister of State, Labour and Employment (2009 – January 18, 2011), Agriculture and Food Processing Industries (January 19, 2011 – October 28, 2012) and Parliamentary Affairs (July 2011 – October 28, 2012).
Twice Rawat was passed over by Congress as Chief Minister, first in 2001 to Narayan Dutt Tiwari and in 2012 to Uttarakhand’s current Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. Being denied a second time took on caste implications – Rajput vs Brahmin - and caused a legislative uproar. Rawat is Rajput while Tiwari and Bahuguna are Brahmin. Rajputs are now a majority caste in the state.
A party loyalist, Rawat was the unspoken face of Congress in the March 2012 Assembly elections. When Bahuguna was sworn in as Chief Minister instead, only eight of 32 Congress Members of the Legislative Assembly attended. The rest boycotted in support of Rawat. Upset, he sent a resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, but Rawat refused to comment. There was also speculation of splitting the party.
During the UPA reshuffle, on October 28, 2012, Rawat was promoted to the Cabinet- (federal) level position of Minister of Water Resources. He replaced Pawan Bansal, who became the Railway Ministers.
