'Corruption My Biggest Challenge'

It’s early days, but CM T.S. Rawat is already making things move in his state.

- Asit Jolly

Invariably compared with his Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat may not possess Yogi Adityanath’s belligerence, but the 56-year-old former RSS pracharak has proved he’s got the gumption to stand up to ‘bullying’ from Delhi.

“I knew fighting corruption would be my biggest challenge,” says Rawat, who took charge of the state just over a hundred days ago. And as if on cue, less than a week after he was sworn in, he was confronted with what is now commonly referred to as the ‘NH74 scam’—allegations of misappropriation of funds in the acquisition of land to widen a 300 km stretch of highway between Haridwar and Bareilly.