Harish Rawat

Harish Rawat, born in a village of Almora district, has been one of Uttarakhand's defining politicians: five-time MP, union minister and Chief Minister of the state from 2014 to 2017.

Born in 1948 in Mohanari village in Almora district, he rose through trade-union and Congress politics in Kumaon, winning the Almora Lok Sabha seat in 1980 and holding national office across four decades, including cabinet charge of water resources at the centre.

He became Chief Minister in February 2014 in the aftermath of the Kedarnath disaster, and his term saw both reconstruction work and the political storm of 2016, when a rebellion and President's Rule were overturned by the courts and he returned to office within weeks, a constitutional episode studied to this day.

Out of office he has remained the state's most recognisable Congress face, an old-style mass politician of the hills whose base has always been the villages of Kumaon.