Trivendra Singh Rawat sworn in as Uttarakhand's ninth Chief Minister

An RSS veteran, since 1979, Trivendra did his post-graduation in journalism. He was appointed as an Uttarakhand organisational secretary for five years in 1970. Rawat also served as state cabinet minister in 2007 under BC Khanduri.

Coupled with his administrative and organisational skills and experience, his loyalty to the party and RSS ideology seemed to have won the day for him.

So impressed was Home Minister Rajnath Singh with his unflinching devotion that while asking people to vote for Rawat, he had said, "Trivendra Singh Rawat ne kabhi apni nishtha nahin badli (he never switched his loyalty)."

The ringing endorsement by the fellow Thakur leader from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh seems to have worked for Rawat, 56, who wrested the Doiwala seat from Congress with an impressive margin of 24,869 votes to win it for the third time.

His organisational skills were put to test in Jharkhand where he came out with flying colours, guiding the BJP to a resounding electoral victory in the assembly polls in 2014 as party in-charge.

Born in December 1960 into a family where serving in the armed forces was a tradition, with his father Pratap Singh Rawat in Garhwal Rifles, he studied in a school built of mud and thatch in his native village of Khairasain in Pauri Garhwal district.

Though average in studies, Rawat evinced keen interest in socio-cultural work at an early age, a fact which explains his joining the RSS aged 19 years.

Six years later, he was appointed RSS pracharak for Dehradun city.

Considered a man rooted in rural traditions, Rawat loves hill delicacies and keeps visiting his village from time to time to relish those, especially during winter when he loves to eat millet (Manduwa) rotis, his elder brother Veerendra says.

(With agency inputs)