Uttarakhand Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, who was with the BJP till January 2022 and served as a minister in the previous government of the party, is the latest Opposition leader to come under the Enforcement Directorate’s radar.

On Wednesday, the central agency conducted raids at several locations in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh in connection with a forest scam allegedly linked to Rawat.

The ED claims that under Rawat’s watch as Uttarakhand forest minister, thousands of trees were felled in the state. It alleges financial irregularities in his dealings, and illegal construction in the Pakhro Tiger Reserve range of the Corbett National Park in 2019.

Rawat’s career of over 30 years started off with the BJP. His first Assembly election was in 1991 from the Pauri seat. He also went on to become a minister in the Kalyan Singh government of then undivided Uttar Pradesh and was among the youngest ministers in the government of the time.

In 1998, he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. He made another switch in 2022, to the Congress, when the BSP denied him a ticket. He won the Lansdowne seat in the Assembly polls that year. He served as the Leader of the Opposition between 2007-12 when the BJP’s B C Khanduri was CM.

In 2012, Rawat lost to Vijay Bahuguna in the race to the CM post but was inducted in the Cabinet.

Four years later, Rawat, miffed with not being allotted crucial departments such as Power and Public Works, was among the nine Congress legislators who in 2016 joined hands with the BJP to dislodge then Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s government.

In January 2022 though, the Uttarakhand BJP removed Rawat from the party for six years, citing indiscipline. The action came a month after Rawat, who was the Minister for Forests and Environment, Labour, Employment and Skill Development, threatened to resign from the post during a Cabinet meeting chaired by then and current CM Pushkar Singh Dhami.

Five days after being removed from the BJP, Rawat joined the Congress along with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain. The Congress party put up a united front and ensured the presence of its entire Uttarakhand line-up in Delhi to welcome Rawat.

While the senior leader hoped to start afresh in the Congress, his removal from the BJP is said to have significantly reduced his bargaining power. As a result, Harak had to choose between himself and his daughter-in-law for a ticket in the 2022 Assembly polls. Anukriti contested from the Lansdowne seat but lost to the BJP’s Daleep Singh Rawat.

Harak was later accommodated by the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) as the coordinator for the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly Elections.