Starting at village level politics, and after staying as a Trade Unionist and an Indian Youth Congress member for many years, he joined the Indian Parliament in 1980 as a member of the 7th Lok Sabha by defeating the BJP veteran Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi from Almora parliamentary constituency, followed by the 8th Lok Sabha and the 9th Lok Sabha. He has been head of Congress Volunteer Wing, Congress Seva Dal since 1980.

In 2000, he was unanimously elected the President of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC), and remained so until he was replaced by Yashpal Arya. In 2002, he was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha.
In Indian general election, 2009, he left his traditional stronghold of Almora after it became a reserved seat post-delimitation to contest from Haridwar (Lok Sabha constituency), and won the election with 332055 votes.
Rawat took the oath of office as 8th chief minister of Uttarakhand when Vijay Bahuguna resigned due to criticism of his handling of rehabilitation after June floods, 2013.

About Harish Rawat Ji

A leader of Indian National Congress party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha. He was a Minister of State in the Ministries of Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs but was given cabinet rank and charge of Water Resources on 28 October 2012. Before that he was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament representing Uttarakhand. Harish was sworn as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on 1st February, 2014