Dehradun: Tirath Singh Rawat was sworn- in- as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on Wednesday in place of Trivendra Singh Rawat. Though he was first-time MP, he has held key organisational positions with the party, both in the state and at the Centre.

He was the state’s first education minister, a part of the interim government when Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh. He went on to become the state BJP president from 2013 to 2015 and is now a national secretary.

In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP nomination for Chaubattakhal went to heavyweight Satpal Maharaj, overlooking Rawat’s claim to the seat he had won in 2012. But the party made up to him. Rawat was soon made a national secretary and given the ticket to contest from Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections. Tirath Singh Rawat’s wife Rashmi, a professor of psychology, vouches for his “simplicity”.

“He is simple and unassuming despite having occupied several organisational positions, and a long political experience. These are his virtues,” she told reporters after he was elected leader of the state legislature party. “He is a serious man and does not speak much,” she said.