Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who served as Uttarakhand CM, Maharashtra Governor, awarded Padma Bhushan

He also founded schools such as Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Pithoragarh, Vivekanand Vidya Mandir intercollege, and Saraswati Vihar Higher Secondary School in Nainital.

Koshyari has long been associated with the RSS and was detained at Almora and Fatehgarh Central Jail under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency.

In May 1997, Koshyari became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. After the bifurcation of UP in 2000, he was appointed the minister of Energy, Irrigation, Law and Legislative Affairs of the newly created state of Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand). In 2001, he replaced Nityanand Swami as the new chief minister of the state. He held the post for only a year, though, as the BJP lost the 2002 Assembly polls.

In 2008, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand, and in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Koshyari won from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar.

He courted controversy as Maharashtra Governor when he swore in Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and Ajit Pawar as his deputy on November 23, 2019, in the aftermath of a Maharashtra Assembly election whose outcome hung in balance after the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, broke a pre-poll alliance with the BJP to start talks with the NCP and the Congress. The “coup” lasted three days, as the BJP failed to muster the numbers. Koshyari had faced criticism for ignoring precedent and allowing the party to use loopholes to try to wrest back power in the state.